Hogwarts: All Sales Final COMPLETE
by FullMoonDreams
Summary: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin are building the finest magic school in the world. There will be lots of magic and mayhem along the way...and the odd goat thrown in too. RRSS. Please R&R.
1. No Refunds

_Disclaimer: Don't own any the characters, places etc. JK Rowling retains the rights etc etc. I'm borrowing them for a while for the amusement of myself and my readers._

_Credit to DorkPangs of HPN for the title of both the fic itself and the title of Chapter 1. _

_Rated it M to be on the safe side though it is probably nearer to T. Just in case anyone is wondering._

_And yes I know they sound a bit too modern - call it quirks of them being witches and wizards - it's not like they'd have been speaking English at all in that era and I'm certainly not going to be learning another language to make it compliant with medieval times. ;-) _

_Enjoy! _

Chapter 1 – No Refunds

"Behold, the village of Hogsmeade!" Godric Gryffindor flung out a sweeping arm in the general direction of the small cluster of hovels that the cart they had been travelling in had stopped near.

Salazar Slytherin hopped down from the cart and cast an appraising look around. "I think the use of the word village is pushing the definition ever so slightly," he commented as he turned to help Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw down from their seats.

"What do you think, ladies?" Godric asked.

"I think I just stepped in a present one of the hogs has deposited on the…er…I guess you might call it a road," Rowena muttered as she surveyed the sole of her shoe with distaste.

"I see plenty of hogs," Helga commented. "Not sure where they're hiding the mead though."

Salazar snickered quietly. "So which of these delightful establishments were you thinking of acquiring for this school of ours?"

"Oh none of these," Godric replied with an airy wave of his hand. "It's this way, come on."

With that he turned and began walking away from the houses and towards the open hills before them.

"I take it we're walking the rest of the way," Rowena muttered as she looked up at the increasingly overcast sky that threatened a coming storm. "I hope it's not too far."

"It's not the distance that worries me, so much as the complete lack of anything resembling a path," Salazar commented as they trailed after Godric.

The walk was hard going, and only Godric seemed unaffected by the steep incline they soon found themselves navigating. Within a matter of minutes he was forging well ahead of the others. Helga soon began to trail behind the group, stopping every now and then to poke at and investigate various plants and weeds that caught her eye.

"Something's bothering you," Rowena commented to Salazar as they picked their way through the overgrown foliage barring their path. Salazar nodded silently in response.

"Look at it this way," Rowena continued when it was clear that he wasn't going to confide in her any time soon, "it can't possibly be worse than that doxy infested manor house we looked at down in Cornwall last month."

The memory of their rapid exit from the potential school premises brought a smile to Salazar's face and within a few moments they were both rolling on the ground howling with laughter as the recollections of that day returned.

"…his face when he threw back the drapes…"

"…smashing that collection of priceless glassware as we ran for the door…"

"…the seller's face…"

"…nearly trampled him…"

"…the one that wouldn't let go of Godric's hair…"

They were still reminiscing and laughing when Helga caught up with them, her arms laden with various types of greenery.

"Any chance you could hold off on rolling in the heather until another time," she commented with a smirk worthy of Salazar himself as she passed them.

"You're just annoyed that Wilbur won't leave his new obsession to come look at premises with us," Salazar teased as he helped the still giggling Rowena to her feet.

"Quidditch is going to be the greatest wizarding sport ever," Helga retorted. "You'll see!"

"Nothing will ever beat duelling for exhilaration and excitement," Salazar argued.

Rowena listened as her friends bantered and teased each other as they continued wandering on in the direction they had last seen Godric striding in.

They eventually caught up with him standing in the middle of an expanse of green grass near a large, rather murky looking lake.

"He's not lost _again_ is he?" Rowena asked with an impatient sigh.

"Looks like it," Helga replied with a sigh of her own. "Too much to expect him to stop and ask for directions."

"In all fairness, there's no one around to ask," Salazar pointed out.

"So what do you think?" Godric called out as they came into hearing distance. He spread his arms wide and surveyed the landscape with a satisfied smile on his face.

"Very pretty," Rowena dutifully replied. "But where's the building?"

"That's the best part," Godric announced. "There _isn't_ one."

"That's what I was afraid off," Salazar muttered.

"You mean you've dragged us all the way up here to look at some dirty old lake and a bunch of mountains?" Helga asked as she brandished a handful of dirty looking roots in Godric's general direction.

Rowena pinched at the bridge of her nose; she felt a headache coming on.

"Look at that view," Godric enthusiastically exclaimed. "You just can't put a price on a view like that!"

"You didn't?" Salazar asked in a tone that clearly indicated that he suspected Godric had.

"Didn't what?" Rowena asked, some of Salazar's apprehension starting to rub off on her.

"We'll build the castle here," Godric announced.

"Tell me you didn't?" Salazar pleaded.

"Didn't _what_?" Rowena asked again. She truly hated being kept out of the loop.

"It'll be great!" Godric enthused as he started to pull various pieces of parchment out of his robes.

"Oh Merlin, you did!"

"Did _what_?" Rowena practically shouted, which did nothing to help her head.

"He's bought the land already," Salazar stated in a knowing tone. "Haven't you?"

Godric looked up from the parchment he was studying. His earlier expression of excitement was now replaced with one of boyish guilt.

"Come on Salazar, you just can't put a price on a view like this!"

"Oh I think someone did," Salazar cynically replied.

"How much did you pay for this land?" Helga asked, in a worried tone. By unspoken agreement Helga, with her practical nature, had been deemed to be in charge of their funds. Rowena wondered if perhaps they should have had something in writing to that effect…unfortunately it was too late now. A phrase about stable doors and bolting horses sprang to mind.

"This is prime real estate," Godric evaded.

"It's in the middle of nowhere," Rowena pointed out, turning to Helga and Salazar. "How much could they have charged for it?"

"For any other wizard I'm sure they'd have got it dirt cheap," Salazar sighed. "But this is Godric we're talking about. Haggling isn't in his vocabulary."

"I'll have you know I got them to knock the price down by five hundred galleons," chimed in an offended sounding Godric.

"Oh Merlin, how much _did_ you pay?" Rowena asked as Helga sank to the grass in an apparent state of shock.

Godric's guilty expression returned as he mumbled a figure that had Rowena join Helga on the ground when her legs gave way.

"We'll get a refund, it'll be all right," Salazar assured Helga as he glared at Godric. Something he saw in the other man's face however caused him to pause. "We _won't_ get a refund?"

Godric shook his head. "All sales are final."

Salazar sank to the ground between Helga and Rowena and put his head in his hands. Rowena thought she heard him mutter something about one being born every minute but she was still too stunned to form anything resembling a coherent sentence.

After ten minutes or so the shock began to wear off and Rowena and the others crept cautiously across the grass to Godric in order to see what it was he was studying so intently.

"What is it?" Helga asked as she cocked her head one way and then another to try to make sense of the confusion of lines and scribblings on the parchment.

"It's plans for our castle," Godric said proudly. "Been working on them all month."

"You'd never know it," Salazar muttered under his breath. "Why do we need a castle? I wasn't under the impression we were expecting that many students."

"I envisage the school growing and expanding over time," said Godric in a wistful tone of voice. "No sense in building too small now and having to move location later on."

"How are you planning on building it?" Helga asked with a frown of worry. She squinted at the plans in the vain hope that perhaps they'd look better out of focus.

"We're going to build it together," Godric said. "Every stone will be lovingly and carefully placed until she stands proudly on this spot and welcomes her first students."

"You do realise some of the upper floors you've designed have floor plans that are more than twice the size of the floors below?" Salazar pointed out as he studied one sheet of parchment.

"You've also forgot to put staircases in the towers," Rowena commented.

"We're wizards, we don't need staircases," Godric retorted.

"I think some of the students might though," Helga pointed out.

"You've forgot to include a dungeon," Salazar commented.

"And you've only included two privies for the entire school," Rowena added.

"There's no corridor to this classroom."

"And this one here doesn't lead anywhere at all."

"How many towers have you included?"

"The path you've mapped out to the village goes right through the middle of the lake."

"You've put the Care of Magical Creatures classroom at the top of one of the towers. Do you really think that's practical?"

"Is there _anything_ any of you actually _like_ about the plans?" Godric asked in a hurt tone.

"Well, I like the way you've put the staff common room fairly close to the kitchen," Rowena offered after a minute or two of silent contemplation; Helga and Salazar nodded in agreement.

Godric looked at them hopefully but no other compliments seemed to be forthcoming.

The first spots of the rain that had been threatening to fall since they'd arrived in Hogsmeade fell onto the parchment.

"I guess there's no time like the present to get started on building," Rowena said as the heavens opened.

"Just one room will be enough to start with," Helga commented. "We can work on the rest from there."

"I vote we start with the eating hall," Salazar said as he pointed to the large room marked Great Hall on the plans. "It'll be central to the school and-"

"Yes, yes," Rowena cut him off. "More importantly, it'll be _dry_."

Godric and Helga were way ahead of her though. Rowena and Salazar stood and watched as Helga made the shrubs in front of them grow legs and move out of the way whilst Godric caused stones to materialise, climb on top of each other and form the walls of the building.

"Perfect!" Godric said as the last of the stones scrambled into place at the top of the wall.

"Not quite," Rowena said as she pulled out her wand and pointed it at the nearest wall. A moment later a door appeared.

"I just didn't want to do all the work myself," Godric huffed as they hurried to the door seeking shelter from the rain.

"I'm spotting another problem," Salazar said brightly as they closed the door behind them.

No one needed to ask what the problem was; they'd all managed to spot it this time.

"My turn I believe," Salazar said as he pulled out his wand and pointed it at the sky.

"Can't be expected to remember every little detail," Godric muttered as an arched ceiling materialised above them, finally sealing them in from the rain outside.

The addition of the ceiling meant that they were now in darkness, though a roaring fire in the middle of the room, courtesy of Rowena soon fixed that little problem.

"Stone floor, I think," Helga said, more to herself than the others as she pointed her wand at the floor and watched the grass morph into sturdy foundation stones.

"Should we have a carpet?" Rowena asked doubtfully. "Children and food is never a good combination when it comes to cleaning."

"Leave it as stone," Godric agreed as he pointed his wand high up towards the wall to the left. A flagpole sprouted from the stonework and the Gryffindor banner with the rampant lion unfurled from the same. Three more aims of the wand later and three more banners were hanging from the walls.

"What's that on the Ravenclaw standard?" Rowena asked as she squinted up at the familiar colours but unfamiliar animal.

"A raven, of course," Godric replied with a shrug. "Is something wrong?"

"It's supposed to be an eagle," Rowena pointed out with a sigh as she aimed her own wand at the banner to remedy this.

"But your name's Ravenclaw," Godric pointed out.

"So? The bird's supposed to be an eagle," Rowena shrugged. There was no point in explaining; she'd never understood it either.

"You've put the Slytherin snake the wrong way round as well," Salazar pointed out as he pulled out his own wand and aimed it at the green and silver standard opposite the Ravenclaw one.

"I suppose the badger's eyes are too close together?" Godric asked Helga in a wounded voice.

"No," she replied meekly. Godric looked slightly appeased as he aimed his wand at the far wall and caused a stained glass window to appear within it.

"I thought the Hufflepuff colours were black and gold?" Rowena whispered.

"They are," Helga whispered back.

"So change it quick, while he's not looking," Rowena hissed.

"It doesn't matter," Helga replied with a shrug. "Yellow, gold…they're nearly the same and its not like anyone will notice."

As the rain poured down over the Scottish landscape the four friends studied Godric's plans and set about deciding how they'd go about building their castle. Godric's enthusiasm was contagious and within a few hours they wondered how they'd ever imagined they could find a building suitable for all their unique needs.


	2. A World of Possibilities

**Chapter 2 – A World of Possibilities**

Rowena woke up on the hard stone floor of the Great Hall.

"Did I fall asleep?" she asked in confusion.

"You and Helga both," Salazar replied in a quiet whisper so as not to disturb her. Rowena knew that his whisper was rather pointless as Helga was a heavy sleeper and nothing short of the rafters falling down would wake her before she was ready to rise.

"Why didn't you transfigure something into a bed?" she asked as she rubbed her neck. "Or better still, summon one of the beds from storage?"

During their travels over the past months it had become clear that they were accumulating far too many items for their school that simply couldn't be carried with them at all times. So to remedy this problem they had taken possession of a storage facility to house the numerous beds, tables, desks, books, blackboards and all the other furnishings and items they required. Each time they made a new acquisition they would immediately send the item into storage with the intention of summoning it to the school once they needed the same.

Rowena was more than a little annoyed that no one, herself included, had had the foresight to summon her bed from the storage facility.

"Godric said sleeping on the stone floor was character building," Salazar replied with a smirk.

"Godric can take his character building and shove it where-"

"Godric is wide awake and can hear every word you're saying," the man in question interrupted from across the room.

Rowena turned her head to deliver her smart reply but stopped as she realised what it was that was different about the room.

"Ooooh," she said as she looked up.

"You like it?" Salazar asked as he moved to sit beside her.

Rowena was speechless as she looked up at the ceiling and saw, instead of the wooden beams, a blanket of twinkling stars. The storm clouds had disappeared with the moonrise, revealing a clear sky, a bright moon and a whole world of possibilities.

"I know you like looking at the stars," Salazar continued. "This is my one romantic gesture for the year."

Rowena giggled girlishly still transfixed by the sky above them.

"He'll tell you anything," Godric commented. "He only did it to try to prove he could teach Astronomy from the ground instead of the tower I've provided for the subject."

"I don't care," Rowena said. "It's beautiful."

She leaned back on the floor, all thoughts of a comfortable bed forgotten as she smiled dreamily up at the stars. She felt her eye lids start to droop and was half asleep when she felt a familiar arm ease its way under her shoulders. She shifted her position and let herself be held close as she drifted off to sleep once more. The last thing she heard before slumber claimed her once more was Salazar's whisper in her ear: "I'd give you the stars themselves if I could."

* * *

Rowena wasn't sure what it was that woke her the next morning.

Perhaps it was the irritating sensation of pins and needles in her left leg, caused by her uncomfortable position.

Maybe it was the draft from the open doorway chilling her slightly on the misty April morning.

It could have been the tantalising aroma of freshly cooked fish that was teasing her nostrils with the promise of a delicious breakfast.

More likely though, it was the pleasant sensation of warm breath near her ear and the slight flicker of a tongue on her lobe.

She smiled dreamily, her eyes still closed.

"Sal, stop it," Rowena giggled quietly, conscious of the others who were in the room.

The tongue tickled her ear once more and she giggled again. "Sal don't, we're not alone, remember?"

"I don't know what it is I'm being accused of, but I assure you all I'm doing right now is breathing." Salazar's voice sounded vaguely amused and very sleepy. Rowena was also quick to notice that it was coming from the opposite side of her to the presence that had woken her. They didn't call her the brightest witch of the Age for nothing.

She opened her eyes and stared into the large brown eyes that were gazing placidly at her.

She let loose a shriek and scrambled away from the goat that apparently found her so interesting.

Salazar grunted in pain as she climbed over him.

Helga laughed from where she was tucking into a dish of fish. "Looks like you've made a new friend, Rowena."

"How in the name of Merlin did that thing get in here?" Rowena asked as she pointed accusingly at the offending animal.

"I'd imagine through the door," Helga replied calmly. "It was in here when I woke up. Godric left the door open when he went to catch breakfast."

Rowena stepped back to avoid the creature that was now eyeing the hemline of her robes in hungry anticipation.

"Why didn't the great lummox shut the door behind him?" Rowena fumed as she edged further and further away.

"The great lummox had his hands full at the time," Godric replied with good humour from where he was dishing out more fish into bowls for the two sleepier members of the party. "Thought we could use her for some milk."

Rowena looked at the goat apprehensively as she walked across to Godric. Much to her annoyance the wretched animal followed after her.

"She likes you," Godric said with a smug grin. "She'll probably let you milk her later."

"_Milk her_?" Rowena squeaked.

"Your father runs a farming estate," Godric pointed out, as though this explained everything. "He has goats doesn't he?"

"He also has servants," Rowena snapped as she took the bowl of fish from Godric while continuing to try to evade the hairy little monster.

"You'll pick it up in no time," Godric said with a casual wave of his hand. "If muggles can manage to milk their goats I'm sure you'll have no problem."

Rowena glared at Godric and contemplated how much damage she could do with the fork that was clenched in her hand.

"I'm curious about something," Helga piped up from where she sat, clearly amused at watching Rowena dancing around the room, trying to evade the goat. Rowena looked at her and saw the familiar twinkle in her friend's eyes. She groaned, dreading what her best friend was going to come out with now. She'd known Helga for twenty years, ever since they were children, and the look on her face rarely boded well for Rowena. "What made you think the goat was…er…_Sal_?"

Rowena groaned. Salazar generally hated his name being shortened and until now the others had had no idea that in private he let Rowena use the pet name. She shot him an apologetic look. Godric and Helga would never let him forget it.

"It was probably the smell," Godric piped up mischievously. Salazar switched his glare from the still snickering Helga to Godric.

"That or the ratty beard," Helga giggled.

"My beard was _not_ ratty," muttered Salazar, sounding offended. "And at least mine hadn't got things living in it!" Rowena tried to suppress a smile. Salazar had started to grow a beard some five years ago but had given it up at the constant jibes and teasing of the others, Rowena included.

"We were trying to decide on a name for the goat," Godric commented, ignoring Salazar's jibe at his own beard. Rowena knew her friends far too well to imagine for even a second that he was actually changing the subject. "How about we call her Sal?"

Rowena groaned again, Salazar shoved a fork full of fish into his mouth rather than reply, and Godric turned back to the floor plans for the castle with a deceptively innocent look on his face. Helga rolled backwards on the floor as the giggles developed into full blown gales of laughter. She seemed to be bordering on the verge of near hysteria.

The demon in the form of a goat chewed contentedly on Rowena's robes.

* * *

"Godric's allocated you a tower," Salazar pointed out with an exasperated sigh. "You don't need all the underground space."

Unfortunately for him, Helga wasn't giving an inch. "If I'm in charge of the kitchens I _need_ rooms near them. Not at the top of one of Godric's wretched towers!"

"But _I_ need rooms in the dungeons," Salazar argued. "If you're taking up all the space my rooms will end up pushed under the lake."

"Plenty of room under there," Helga pointed out, clearly not bothered by the thought.

Rowena listened to them with half an ear as she stood just outside the entrance hall watching the first of Godric's towers materialising above them. Godric himself was out of sight, and so was their new four-legged companion. Rowena wondered how long it would take the others to realise she'd shut the animal in one of the newly built store cupboards.

As the morning had progressed the castle had started to take shape. The first floor was partially completed. The walls were in place and Rowena was in the process of adding doors and windows to the classrooms. Godric was now working upwards whilst Helga and Salazar had decided to work downwards.

"Rowena, come and back me up here," Helga called in a voice that was bordering on the very edge of whining.

Rowena turned to look at her two dearest friends. Helga and Salazar were two of the most stubborn people she knew. She was reluctant to take sides with either of them and felt a very slight stab of annoyance at Helga for putting her in that position.

"Godric's purchased more than enough land for ample underground facilities," Rowena pointed out tactfully.

"Why do _you_ need rooms in the dungeon anyway?" Helga asked. "You're going to be teaching Potions and Astronomy. Godric's building a special tower for Astronomy and it's hardly healthy to be brewing potions underground. All those fumes and no circulating air."

Rowena privately agreed about the location of the Potions classroom but bit her tongue to keep from saying anything. She'd already caused Salazar his fair share of embarrassment for the day, and it wasn't even lunchtime.

"What's wrong with building under the lake?" she asked instead. "A few charms should keep the water from flooding us."

"Fine," Salazar grumbled. "I'll build the rooms but you'll have to come down with me to hold the water back. I can't do both at the same time."

"Perfect!" Helga smiled as she pointed her wand at the ground, spoke the spell _defodio._ They watched the ground open up into a tunnel and with another flick of her wand stairs appeared, leading down into the darkness. Rowena and Salazar watched her disappear down them purposefully.

Once she'd disappeared from view and her somewhat tuneless whistle had died out Salazar pointed his wand at another part of the ground. The same spell Helga had used caused the ground to open once more and steps to appear.

"_Lumos_," Rowena said as they descended into the darkness. Salazar shook his head at her and instead conjured a small container and a small quantity of bluebell flames that he placed inside it. Of course, the light from her wand would disappear as soon as she needed to cast the charms to hold back the water, leaving them in the dark and vulnerable to any mistakes they might have made in their spells.

They followed the tunnel that was forming in front of them, Salazar guiding it steadily as it formed.

"Are you sure this is the right direction?" Rowena asked. "Which way was Helga planning on building?"

"Back there," Salazar confirmed. "This is the way to the lake." He waved his wand slightly out of habit and a tunnel branched off from the main one. It twisted off to the left and disappeared into darkness.

"Oops," Rowena said and shrugged.

"I'll say I did it on purpose," Salazar replied. "Who's to know? Provided you don't accidentally tell everyone when you wake up tomorrow."

Rowena giggled as they continued to walk down the tunnel. "I'm sorry," she said between giggles. "It just sort of slipped out."

Salazar snorted in response.

"Am I forgiven?" she asked meekly as the tunnel they were walking down began to incline even further underground. She hooked her arm through his and swore as her movement caused Salazar to accidentally spawn another tunnel, this one branching off to the right.

"You think they'll believe me, if I say they were both on purpose?" Salazar asked with a sigh.

"I doubt it," Rowena replied. "Maybe if we do a few more it'll sound more believable?"

Salazar grinned wickedly as he aimed his wand at the wall. Rowena did likewise on the opposite wall and within a few minutes there were so many tunnels twisting off the one they were standing in Rowena actually wondered whether they'd be able to find their way back above ground again at all.

Once they'd finished creating more tunnels they carried on down the main one, or at least Rowena hoped it was the main one, towards the lake.

"You ready?" Salazar asked her as they drew to a halt at the end of the tunnel. Rowena nodded. Salazar brandished his wand and a room opened up in front of them. They were dangerously close to the under-surface of the lake and as soon as the shimmering depths of the water appeared Rowena performed the charm that kept that same water from pouring in and crushing them.

"We make quite a team don't we?" said Rowena as she looked around the room that seemed to shimmer like the water itself.

"The best," Salazar replied with a smile.

"It's a bit cold down here though." Rowena shivered and rubbed her arms as the chill from the water started to set in. Salazar pulled her into his arms with a smirk.

"I bet I can warm you up," he whispered in her ear. "Do you realise this is the first time we've been completely alone together in two months?"

"I hadn't noticed," Rowena lied. "How about over there?" She pointed to a spot near the far wall.

"How about right here?" Salazar replied.

"It'd block the doorway," Rowena retorted mischievously.

"Huh?"

"If you built a fireplace here, it'd block the doorway," Rowena said in as innocent a tone as she could muster. Unfortunately with Salazar kissing her neck she wasn't particularly successful. "Why? What were you talking about?"

"Tease," Salazar laughed and pulled back. "If my lady wishes a fireplace, then a fireplace she shall have."

A hollow appeared in the wall Rowena had pointed at and a few seconds later a roaring fire lit up the room.

"Is this going to be your room?" Rowena asked as she provided the room with a door.

"I think this room should be the common room for my students," answered Salazar after a few moments of thought.

"You'd better put the password protection on the door then," Rowena pointed out. Salazar nodded in agreement.

"Where do you want the dormitories?" Rowena queried as she contemplated which directions were going to require her to charm the waters and which ones wouldn't.

They worked tirelessly for several hours, constructing room after room under the huge expanse of the lake. Eventually the Slytherin student quarters were completed along with a fair amount of classrooms, storerooms and Salazar's office. Only when Rowena's stomach growled so loud that Salazar heard it across the room, did they begin their walk back to the world above.

The smell of something meaty and delicious drifted down towards them before they reached daylight. Rowena's stomach growled again in anticipation.

They reached the entrance hall at the same time Helga appeared at the top of the stairs leading to the kitchen and her quarters. She was levitating in front of her a steaming pot of stew and Rowena's mouth started to water.

"Got your quarters completed?" Salazar asked as they walked into the Great Hall.

"Almost," Helga replied. "The kitchen took longer than I thought and then I stopped to prepare this. Oh and I wasted about half an hour trying to find Sal. Who put her in the store cupboard with all the herbs I'd collected on the way up here? I had to go gather more roots as the greedy goat had eaten them all."

"Where's Godric?" asked Rowena, ignoring Helga's question about the goat as she rummaged about in their belongings for bowls and cutlery.

"I put them away downstairs," Helga said as she realised what Rowena was searching for. With a wave of her wand a table from storage appeared in front of them, the eating utensils following a moment later from the kitchens below. "And I've not seen Godric since before we went downstairs."

"He'll turn up when he's hungry," Salazar said as Helga ladled out generous helpings of stew for the three of them.

An hour later Godric still hadn't reappeared.

"Maybe he's gone fishing, or something," Rowena suggested. "He could've eaten what he caught down at the lake."

Salazar nodded in agreement and stood up to go check. Rowena and Helga followed close behind. They walked down towards the lake but it was clear that he was nowhere around. Rowena turned round to head back and stopped in her tracks.

"What is it?" Helga asked.

"Does something about this picture look wrong to you?" she replied as she gestured to the partially formed castle.

"Not really," Helga admitted after a moment's contemplation. "The first floor's finished, at least externally, Godric appears to have finished the first of the towers…what's wrong?"

"Godric had almost completed the first of the towers when we went downstairs," Rowena pointed out. "So what's he been doing all this time?"


	3. Staircase Issues

Chapter 3 – Staircase Issues

"GODRIC!" Salazar's voice boomed out with the help of the _sonorus_ spell.

"Give us a warning next time, would you?" Helga scolded as she removed her hands from her ears.

"He's not answering," Rowena said, the first hint of worry starting to creep into her voice.

"Where was he last seen?" asked Helga, concern evident in her tone as well.

"He was at the base of the tower," Rowena called back; she was already part way there.

Godric was nowhere in sight. They called out repeatedly for him but there was no answering reply.

"He'll be all right," Salazar assured them, though Rowena privately thought he didn't sound so sure himself. Godric was his best friend and they had known each other as long as she and Helga had. They'd always been there for each other and were as close as any brothers. If he could hear Salazar he would surely have answered him by now.

"Let's look back inside," Helga suggested.

"You don't think he could have got lost in the tunnels?" Rowena asked. "You know his sense of direction."

"Even Godric can't get lost in a virtually straight tunnel," Helga pointed out.

"Erm…"

"There are a fair few tunnels down in my quarters," Salazar admitted. "We got a bit carried away. Might even have to fill a few of them in, now I think about it."

Rowena went to the entrance of the Slytherin tunnel and, following Salazar's example, used the _sonorus_ spell to project her voice into the tunnel. The sound echoed and re-echoed around them but there was still no answering response.

"I don't think he'd have followed you down there anyway," Helga commented as they headed up the staircase leading to what would one day be called Gryffindor Tower.

"He might have done," Rowena replied. "He could be injured down there. We should search."

"If we can't find him anywhere else then okay," Helga answered. "But he won't have wanted to walk in on you down there."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rowena asked. "I'm quite capable of performing perfectly acceptable spell work even when distracted by interruptions."

"That wasn't what she meant," Salazar whispered in her ear.

"What do you…you mean…they think…Helga?" Rowena stammered in embarrassment. "You don't think that we were…er…um…"

"Well we've all been under each other's feet for the last two months," Helga pointed out rather apologetically. "We…er…that's Godric and I…well, we figured you two would find an excuse to disappear alone together at some point today."

"We weren't…we didn't…we…" Rowena's voice trailed off and she felt her face flushing.

Helga smirked but remained silent.

"Tell her!" she demanded as she rounded on Salazar. "Tell her we didn't…"

Salazar nodded dutifully in confirmation. "We worked hard all morning and behaved ourselves entirely."

"Well of course _you'd_ say that," Helga laughed.

"Oh for goodness sake," Rowena muttered, thankful that they'd reached the base of the tower at last.

Unfortunately there was no sign of Godric there either. They did however find his wand.

"Maybe he's been kidnapped?" Helga suggested.

"Who'd want to kidnap him?" Salazar asked impatiently as he picked up the wand. "He's probably just dropped it. You know what he's like."

"Then where is he?" Rowena asked.

"Well I've spotted the mistake with this picture," Salazar replied with a grin. "Any more takers?"

Rowena and Helga looked around them, both realising at the same time what it was that Salazar had already spotted.

"There's no staircase," Helga said.

"He's trapped himself in his own tower," Rowena said with a giggle, sure that it was true. "Why hasn't he just apparated back down?"

"We put up all sorts of protective charms and spells last night whilst you ladies slept. No one can apparate anywhere inside the grounds…including us."

"Are you sure?" Rowena asked.

"Try it."

She closed her eyes and concentrated but when she opened them she hadn't moved from her spot.

"We wanted to make sure that no one stumbles across us so there are all sorts of spells around the place, some to stop wizards getting in and some to stop muggles getting too close."

"So how did Godric get up there?" Helga asked.

"Let's find out, shall we?" Salazar said as he passed Godric's wand to Rowena and used his own to create a staircase up to the floor above them.

They walked up the stairs and sure enough there they found Godric. He was sitting in the middle of the floor looking extremely bored.

"It's about time," he said by way of greeting. "Did you pick up my wand?"

Rowena passed it to him as he filled them in on what had happened. He'd decided to create the staircases last but whilst hovering on his broom he'd dropped his wand. It had disappeared to the ground below but he hadn't been quick enough to reach it before the floor he'd just conjured had appeared. Nor had Rowena put in the windows as yet and so he had found himself trapped in the room by his own spells.

"At least we know the security spells are working," he pointed out as they descended the stairs once more. "So have the rest of you been having as much fun as I have this morning?"

"Well Rowena and Salazar have been having _lots_ of fun," Helga piped up.

"No we haven't," said Rowena. "We've been working all morning."

Godric smirked; Helga smirked right back at him. Neither of them believed her.

"Never mind, Rowena," Salazar said. "We can always slip away this afternoon and then their assumptions will be correct."

"You will not!" Godric declared. "You've had all morning to make up for the last two months. This afternoon you can get some work done by helping out with the towers."

"For the _last time_, we haven't been…you know…down in the dungeons!" Rowena stood with her hands on her hips daring anyone to contradict her.

Godric looked at her a moment before a mischievous grin spread across his face. "If you really haven't been at it like rabbits all morning down in the dungeons then either you're both too blind to see a good opportunity when you stumble across one, or _Sal's_ losing his touch. Either way, it's rather beside the point; we're behind schedule now so this afternoon it's all hands to the deck."

Rowena swore succinctly and rolled her eyes. She risked a glance at Salazar and suspected he was either counting to ten or praying for patience.

* * *

"That staircase is just getting in the way," Godric complained as he disappeared the offending staircase for the second time.

"But we need to be able to get to the classrooms in the corridor over there," Helga pointed out as she made the staircase reappear yet again.

"But they're not even allocated to classes yet," Godric replied as he vanished the staircase once more.

"You're the one who put them in the plans," Helga retorted as she brought it back again.

"That's not the point, they were just rough plans anyway and the staircase is in the way."

"But we need it here."

"No we don't."

"Yes we do."

"Don't!"

"Do!"

Salazar and Rowena watched their friends from the balcony above with some amusement.

"Another two minutes and they'll resort to jinxing each other," Salazar whispered.

"I give it less than one before Helga jinxes him," Rowena whispered back. "Her hand's already twitching towards her wand."

"Maybe we should step in?" Salazar suggested without moving from where he was leaning against the railings.

"Nah, leave them to it," Rowena replied. "It's about time they provided the entertainment for us. After all, they've had more than enough amusement at our expense today."

"Good point," Salazar agreed.

"When they've worn themselves out, I do have an idea about the staircase problem though." Rowena leaned over the railings slightly.

"Hmm?" Helga's wand was now in her hand and aimed at Godric's nose and Salazar's attention was not on Rowena's words.

"Yes, I think I can solve the immediate problem and give us a lot more space all around the castle too." She leaned further over the railings, straining to see the entrance to the corridors directly beneath them.

"Don't lean over so far," Salazar warned as he pulled her back from her increasingly precarious position.

She took no notice and immediately hopped up onto the railing and leaned backwards to get a better look at what was beneath them

"Don't _do_ that!" Salazar ordered as he reached to pull her back once more. Unfortunately this time he was not so successful and she slipped from his grasp as she tumbled over the edge.

The sound of Salazar's scream drew the attention of Helga and Godric to the level above.


	4. To Hogwarts

**Chapter 4 – "To Hogwarts"**

"Bugger," Rowena muttered as she hung by her left hand from the railings while struggling to reach into her robes for her wand with the other. A shadow fell across her face as she realised that Salazar was tentatively climbing over the railings himself to reach her. His normally rather pale face was now completely white. "Go back. I can manage," she said as she fumbled to find her wand.

Salazar ignored her protests. He crouched down, one hand keeping a tight grip on the railings while the other reached down to grasp her left arm. "I've got you," he said breathlessly as Rowena finally succeeded in pulling free her wand. "I won't let you fall."

Rowena smiled as she pointed her wand downwards. A rush of air beneath her cushioned her as she rose back up to the balcony.

"Why didn't you just levitate me back up?" she asked quietly as soon as they were both back on the correct side of the railings. "You didn't have to climb over to reach me."

"I didn't think," Salazar admitted in a whisper as he held her close. He was shaking slightly though Rowena didn't know if it was an after effect of his fear for her or his fear of heights. "I panicked."

"Are you all right?" Helga called up from below, Godric echoing her concerns as he ran onto the balcony.

"We were too far below to risk trying anything ourselves," Godric said in an apologetic tone. "If we'd hit Salazar with a spell instead of you, you could have fallen. We couldn't see whether he was keeping you from falling or whether you had a steady grip on your own."

"There's no need to explain," Rowena assured him. "I was foolish."

"I'll say you were," Salazar hissed, his fear now giving way to anger at her reckless actions. "That's the sort of thing I've come to expect from Godric. I can't take it from you as well."

"I'm sorry," whispered Rowena as Godric called down to Helga that they were both safe and unharmed.

"What were you trying to do anyway?" Salazar asked.

"I had an idea about the problem with the staircases," Rowena explained. "Let's go downstairs and I'll show you what I have in mind."

* * *

"Don't you think that's a little dangerous?" Helga asked after Rowena had demonstrated her idea. "What if some twelve year old is on the stairs when they start changing?"

"It'll reinforce the importance of the rule about no running," Salazar suggested with a smirk.

"That's not funny," Helga snapped.

"It could work," Godric mused, his mind processing the possibilities of Rowena's idea. "Take that corridor with the rooms that we haven't allocated uses for yet. We could use that for our stores and only have the stairs go there once a week. Better security against sticky fingered students."

"But what's to stop some enterprising student from moving the stairs themselves?" Helga asked, clearly not as enthused about the idea as Godric and Rowena were.

"No one but us can alter the structure of the castle itself," Godric answered, as though this was self-explanatory to anyone. "We own the land and only we can build on it with magic. It's in the paperwork and, more importantly, in the spells we've put on it."

"And after we're gone?" Helga questioned.

"Then the premises will be in the keeping of the Headmaster –"

"Or mistress," chimed in Rowena.

"…Or mistress," Godric continued with a roll of his eyes, "and only they will be able to alter the structure of the building in any fundamental way."

"Are staircases counted as structure?" asked the still apprehensive Helga.

"They are in this building," Godric answered, "at least for the purposes of this sort of magic. No one will be able to alter the stairs except for us, and the Heads who follow after. We could probably even fix it so that they simply continue moving in sequence after we're gone with no interference or help from our successors."

"I like the idea," Salazar replied. Godric turned to him and raised an eyebrow in question. "As long as I know what the sequence is, so I'm not on them when they start to move," he added.

"So we're agreed?" Rowena asked, eager to get started. Helga finally gave a cautious nod, and Rowena set to work.

* * *

By the end of the day the castle was starting to take shape. There was still only one tower built but the first floor and most of the underground chambers were completed. They had gone through the rooms they had created one by one, furnishing them with items from storage.

"It looks just like a real classroom," Rowena squealed after they finished decorating the first one.

Salazar and Godric rolled their eyes at her reaction.

"Just like a _real_ classroom," Godric repeated. "Imagine that?"

The four friends ended the day sitting near the side of the lake, watching the sunset and eating the supper Helga had prepared for them.

"It's really happening, isn't it?" Helga said as they looked at the castle. The grey stones were glowing orange and red in the light of the setting sun.

"It's really happening," Rowena confirmed. "Our own school, at last."

"To Hogwarts," Godric said as he raised a goblet of nettle wine.

"To our school," Helga added as she raised her own goblet.

"To our dream." Salazar raised his goblet too.

"Did I _really_ agree on that name?" Rowena asked.

"Yes," the others answered in unison.

"To the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry that the world will ever know!" Rowena said and raised her own goblet.

They drank to their future school and dreams as the sun finally disappeared beyond the horizon.


	5. The Chamber of Secrets

Chapter 5 – The Chamber of Secrets

Over the course of the next month the castle expanded and grew, floor after floor was created and the building rose higher and higher.

Gryffindor Tower was completed first although the problems they encountered with that one as they built the other floors of the main school forced them to put the construction of the rest of the towers on hold until last.

"Is this _definitely _going to be the top floor?" Godric asked after they had relocated the base of his tower yet again with the construction of the seventh floor of the school.

"I hope so," replied Rowena. "I really think there are more than enough rooms in the main school now. We could probably accommodate the entire magical population of the country without too much difficulty."

"You think we've overdone it a bit?" asked Godric.

"Maybe ever so slightly," Rowena replied with a laugh. "But who knows how many students this place might one day have?"

"Well I'm going to finish this and then turn in for the night," Godric announced with a wide yawn.

Rowena nodded and left Godric to rearrange the furnishings of his tower once more.

She headed back downstairs to find the others and had just reached the fourth floor when a rather irate looking owl swooped towards her. She took the note from it and sent it on its way again. She smiled to herself as she read the note and quickened her pace as she made her way to the second floor.

"Could you _please _stop sending notes with Zeus," she pleaded as she approached Salazar.

"He's bored, he needs to feel useful," Salazar explained.

"But he's getting annoyed because none of us have anything to feed him every time he makes a delivery. I ran out of treats for him over an hour ago."

"He doesn't mind."

"Oh I think he does," Rowena argued. "You should have seen the dirty look he gave me just now. Anyway if he wants to feel useful give him a nice long trip instead of having him flapping about the corridors here. You could write to your mother for a start."

Salazar ignored her complaints; instead he steered her into the open doorway behind him.

"What do you think?" he asked with barely contained excitement as Rowena looked around the room.

"I think we're standing in the men's privy chamber," answered Rowena. "Er…why?"

"First of all, this is the ladies room, weren't you listening last night when Godric changed his mind about this one and the one up on the sixth floor?"

"I must have drifted off at that point," Rowena admitted.

"Well we did a recount and realised there were more men's rooms than ladies so a couple got switched. You really should take more notice of these things."

Rowena rolled her eyes as Salazar continued. "Well, what do you think of it?" he asked with barely contained excitement.

"Did Godric agree to you including this experimental plambing?" Rowena asked.

"It's plumbing, and I thought I'd surprise you all," Salazar answered. "They used plumbing in Rome for years without any problems. It's hardly what you'd call experimental."

"I don't recall any buildings in Rome being quite this big or tall when we were there," Rowena pointed out.

"Well there might be a few little problems but nothing a little magic can't fix."

"Well if this is now the ladies maybe Godric will never know," Rowena suggested. "Unless you…?"

Salazar nodded in response to her unspoken question. He'd done the same to the rest as well. Oh dear.

"Now watch this," he said as he reached past her. "You turn this tap here and you have running water whenever you need it. Perfect for the younger students who won't know how to summon water by magic."

Rowena put her hand under the stream of water and pulled it back with a gasp. "It's freezing," she spluttered.

"Yes…er…well, it's from the lake and I haven't figured out how to heat it up before it gets here yet," Salazar replied with a sheepish expression.

Rowena squinted towards the bowl that the water was pouring into. "Is that a _fish_?" she asked.

"Er…looks like it," Salazar replied as he too looked into the bowl. "Not to worry though, you just pull out this little plug and the water will drain right back to the lake."

"There was a _fish _in the water!" Rowena exclaimed.

"Best place for a fish, it'd be dead if it wasn't. It'll be back in the lake in no time, perfectly well and none the worse for it's little journey up here."

Rowena, for one of the few times in her life was completely speechless. She couldn't quite tell if he was teasing her or whether he really couldn't see what the problem was with fish swimming about in the water they were supposed to be washing in.

She reached to turn off the tap and as she halted the flow of the water she felt a spark of childish delight bubbling up inside her. She turned it back on again and giggled with delight. Then she moved to the next tap and turned that one on too, then the next and the next.

When she reached the fifth one she realised that something was wrong. Although the tap turned like the others, no water appeared from the spout. She twisted it to the off position and back on again but it still didn't work.

"Ah, now that one won't work," Salazar said in a mysterious tone. "That one right there, is ever so slightly _different_."

"It is?"

"You're going to _love_ this," Salazar said as he turned off the rest of the taps and pulled Rowena back from the sinks.

Rowena watched as he pulled out his wand and tapped the side of the tap. He opened his mouth to speak but stopped as Rowena stepped forward again.

"Is that a snake you've engraved on that?" she asked as she bent down to take a closer look.

"Yes, it's a snake," Salazar replied, a touch impatiently. "Now _step back_."

Rowena dutifully obeyed and Salazar pulled out his wand to tap the snake once more. This time Rowena waited beside him as he spoke something brief in parseltongue.

"What did you say?" Rowena asked curiously. But before Salazar could reply the sink started to move and a moment later an entrance in the form of a pipe sloping downwards appeared.

"I just told it to open up," Salazar replied. "So are you ready to go and see what's down there?"

"You've been down there?" Rowena couldn't keep the scepticism out of her voice. The pipe disappeared into darkness and it seemed an awfully long way down. Somehow the thought of Salazar hurling himself down the pipe wasn't something she could see happening.

"I went down the pipe as it was being constructed," Salazar replied. "A far slower and steadier journey than this one is going to be."

"I'm _not _jumping down there," said Rowena as she took an involuntary step back towards the door to the corridor.

"If I can do it, you can. I'll be right behind you," Salazar assured her. He took her hand and guided her back to the pipe. "Just sit on the edge and push yourself off. There's a surprise down there for you."

Rowena looked at the entrance to the pipe and took a tiny step forward so that the toes of her shoes were on the very edge of the precipice. She'd never been afraid of heights or of falling, not like Salazar was. If he could do this then so could she. She sat on the edge of the stone floor and pushed herself off into the darkness.

She squeezed her eyes shut as she raced through the twisting pipe, downwards and downwards with nothing but blackness ahead of her.

She was starting to wonder just how far the pipe went down when a glimmer of light at the bottom signalled that her fall was coming to an end. The pipe smoothly decreased its incline and she shot out into a dimly lit room below.

Rowena groaned as she picked herself up off the damp floor. She moved to the side as she waited for Salazar to join her.

A minute passed and he didn't appear.

Another minute slipped by and Rowena began calling up the pipe for him but he neither replied nor appeared. She amplified her voice and called again but got no response for her efforts.

After five minutes more had passed Rowena had come to the definite conclusion that Salazar's nerve had disappeared and she decided to levitate herself back up the pipe. It was time consuming and took immense concentration but she succeeded in summoning powerful currents of air to lift her higher and higher within the pipe.

She reached the top of the pipe before she saw it. There was no tell tale light to guide her way and she hit her head on the underside of the bowl in the darkness. Her concentration faltered with the shock of her collision and she fell once more down the pipe into the darkness below.

She swore loudly as she reached the bottom of the pipe for the second time.

It looked like she was going to have to find another way out of the mess that Salazar had landed her in. She looked towards the underground tunnel ahead of her, and moved in that direction, contemplating just what she'd do to Salazar when she saw him again.

The tunnel branched off in other directions every now and then as she walked down it but the lights of Salazar's bluebell flames guided her way. She only hoped they were guiding her to an alternative exit.

She carried on down the tunnel at a fairly brisk pace, her head down to avoid stumbling on the far from smooth surface.

"It's about time," a familiar voice echoed down the tunnel. She looked up and saw Salazar standing near an open doorway.

"You…you…" Rowena stammered as she brandished her wand in his direction.

"You didn't _actually_ believe I was going to jump down that pipe did you?" Salazar laughed. "How gullible are you?"

"You climbed over those railings for me," Rowena pointed out, the barb about her gullibility raising her temper once more.

"That was different," Salazar replied, stepping aside as he did so to wave her through the door. She remained rooted to her spot and ignored his gesture. "If there had been no other way of getting down here then I'd have been right with you in the pipe. But since there is…"

"But since there is another way you thought you'd give me a fright and have a good laugh at my expense," Rowena fumed.

"I'll admit to the laughing, but I didn't mean to frighten you. I thought you'd just follow the flames I left out for you this morning and then I'd meet you here."

"Fine," Rowena grumbled. "Now I've seen the interior of yet another damp tunnel can we get out of here?"

"The tunnel isn't the surprise. The surprise is through here." Salazar waved her through the doorway again and this time Rowena complied. As she passed him, Salazar playfully placed his hands over her eyes and carefully guided her footsteps.

"Are you ready?" Salazar whispered into her ear after they had stopped walking.

Rowena nodded, impatient to get this surprise over with once and for all. Salazar removed his hands from her eyes and waited for her response. "What do you think?" he asked.

Rowena stood transfixed by the sight before her.

"Well?" Salazar asked again after she had stood silently for several minutes without responding.

"You've got a strange idea of what I would consider a surprise," Rowena finally muttered. "A statue of your father glaring down at me isn't something I'd want to see at any time and certainly not down here after all this build up."

"Er…that's not the surprise," Salazar explained. "Though I should warn you that I'm told that I look exactly the same as he looked when he was my age so in thirty years time I will probably look exactly like that statue."

"You wouldn't glare at me like that though," Rowena said with a shiver.

"I doubt if my beard would ever grow that long either," Salazar replied. "Now can you at least _look_ at my surprise."

Rowena turned slightly at the pleading, slightly impatient tone and saw what it was she had been meant to see.

"I thought we'd have dinner alone this evening," Salazar explained as he pulled out a chair from the immaculately laid table in front of her. She sat down and he took the seat opposite her. "Helga's provided the food – and before you ask, no she and Godric don't know about this place – so there'll be no complaints about my cooking. The music however is mine."

Salazar pulled out his wand and suddenly the sound of pipe music surrounded them.

"Where's it coming from?" Rowena asked as she looked around.

"From the snakes of course," Salazar replied. "They're all hollow in part and designed so that when the wind, provided by yours truly, blows through them they'll make sounds at different pitches."

"When did you come up with the idea for this place?" Rowena asked as they began to eat.

"Well the main chamber here was naturally formed. I found it when exploring and filling in some of those excess tunnels. One of them had burrowed right into this room. The wind was howling through here that day from an opening I've now sealed up and I got the idea for the music from that. I've been working on it for weeks."

"And I assume you got in here through that original tunnel?"

"Yes," Salazar replied with a smirk. "Though I'm going to seal it behind us before we open the school. Only we'll know where it is."

"So why have the entrance in the ladies' privy chamber?" Rowena asked.

"More dramatic, and until last night it was the men's," Salazar replied with a shrug. "Plus that entrance has better security. Only someone who can speak parseltongue can open it up. Our descendants will be able to gain access but no one else. I think eventually I'll seal up the other entrance permanently."

"Well that explains the excessive number of snakes," Rowena said. "But why, in the name of Merlin, did you put that thing down here?" She pointed at the statue of Salazar's father with distaste.

"Well he said that if I must insist on disgracing the good name of the family by going into the teaching profession the least I could do was to place a prominent statue of his good self…"

Rowena snorted at this point, causing Salazar to pause before he continued.

"…somewhere on the premises. Since he didn't specify where I figured this was as good a place as any."

Rowena smirked as she imagined the look on the elder Salazar's face if he discovered where his son had placed his likeness. She had only met the cantankerous old goat once and that had been bad enough.

They finished their meal in companionable silence and Salazar vanished the pots to the kitchen and the table and chairs to his own chambers.

"May I have the pleasure of the next dance, My Lady." Salazar bowed low with exaggerated courtesy.

Rowena curtseyed in response as she murmured "of course Kind Sir."

Salazar swept her into his arms and twirled her about the chamber to the sound of the enchanting pipe music.

A dreamy expression appeared on her face as she recalled Salazar's casual comment about their descendants. That they hadn't been blessed with children already was more through luck than judgement although Rowena privately hoped that they'd be married before they had children so that they could take their father's name. There was only one reason why they hadn't wed already and that reason was currently glaring down at them from above.

* * *

_Authors Note: Yes I know the Chamber of Secrets wasn't supposed to be built until much later. In case you've not already gathered - I am throwing caution and canon to the wind with this story. ;-)  
_

_Part six will be posted tomorrow. Please stop back then if you wish to meet the parents of the starcrossed lovers.  
_


	6. The Other Salazar Slytherin

Chapter 6 – The Other Salazar Slytherin

The day Rowena had met Salazar's parents was always going to be a memorable one; unfortunately for the courting couple the day turned out to be memorable for all the wrong reasons.

It had started off pleasantly enough. Rowena had been woken by the sound of someone quietly tapping on the door of her bedchamber at Ravenclaw Manor. Her maid had entered with an owl she'd immediately recognised as Zeus and she had leapt from the bed to read Salazar's words of assurance that everything would go smoothly when she and her parents attended the Slytherin Manor for dinner that evening.

The first sign that things were not going entirely as planned was the number of people who were at the Slytherins' Manor when the Ravenclaws arrived. It seemed that the private dinner party had turned into a celebration for every neighbour in a fifty mile radius.

It had taken Rowena more than half an hour to even locate Salazar. When she did it was to find him in the company of a young woman who clearly had far more than dancing on her mind. Rowena had watched them unobserved, a smile playing on her lips as she watched Salazar fending off the clearly unwanted advances of the little hussy. The amusement at his discomfort vanished instantly however when she spotted the woman attempt to slip a wayward hand into Salazar's robes. Rowena had stormed across the room, a cup of wine in her hand and promptly poured the same over her would be rival.

The events that immediately followed were somewhat of a blur, involved a lot of hair pulling and scratching, and caused many of the guests to be thankful that women's dress robes rarely had room for the storage of wands.

Salazar had stepped in and steered Rowena out into the gardens before she'd done too much damage to the other woman. If anyone dared to say that Rowena hadn't had the upper hand then they would find themselves on the receiving end of some imaginative hex the next time she saw them.

"You've got blood down your robes," Salazar commented as he dabbed at her split lip with the cuff of his own robes.

"Little hussy," Rowena muttered. "She should learn to keep her hands to herself."

"Yes," Salazar said with a sigh. "I think you've probably taught her that lesson quite well this evening. You really shouldn't have done it though."

"I'm not going to stand by whilst some little tramp is-"

"The _little tramp_ as you call her, is the daughter of one of my father's oldest friends," Salazar informed her in a tight voice.

"She should still keep her hands to herself."

"Quite. But you're missing the point here."

"Oh, I'm getting the point," Rowena replied with a mischievous grin. "Seems I have rivals I didn't know about, so we'd better get married real soon before one of the little tramps gets you into a compromising position and steals you from me."

"I take it this is the charming Rowena we've been hearing so much about?" The female voice was breathy and each of the s's sounded slightly elongated. Rowena knew at once that she was a parseltongue like her son.

"Mother," Salazar's voice took on a more formal tone as he turned to the older woman who was stepping out of the darkness towards them. "May I present Rowena Ravenclaw."

Salazar's mother was not what Rowena had been expecting. Although Katelyn Slytherin had the height and stature of her son she had an abundance of silvery blond hair that was a stark contrast to her son's raven locks. Her piercing blue eyes swept over Rowena who dipped into a respectful curtsey, at the same time trying to discreetly cover the bloodstains.

"Your father would like to speak with you Salazar; he's in his study." Katelyn waved her arm towards the house but did not take her eyes off Rowena. "We'll take a walk round the grounds until you return."

Salazar gave a small bow to his mother and hurried off towards the house.

"Salazar's father is not happy," Katelyn said without preamble as soon as he had disappeared into the house. "If you wish to marry my son, you'll have a hard time convincing my husband to give you his blessing."

Rowena bit her tongue rather than respond as she wished to. She knew that all her excuses would hold no water with the woman walking beside her.

"My husband wishes our son to marry a lady of breeding," Katelyn continued. She raised a thin hand to halt Rowena's words of protest. "That is to say a lady of breeding who _acts_ like a lady and doesn't cause a scene in public. There were many ways you could have dealt with – what was it you called her? – Ah yes, the little tramp. Many ways that would not involve the spilling of blood."

Rowena looked at the blood splattered on her robes once more before it vanished with a tap of Katelyn's wand.

"Will he really refuse his permission? Will he stop us marrying?" Rowena asked.

Katelyn snorted in a most unladylike manner before she replied. "Salazar has never waited for his father's permission before doing anything so I doubt that he'll start now. But things could be difficult for you if you don't have the blessing of both of his parents."

"Do we have _your_ blessing?" Rowena asked in a quiet voice.

Katelyn waited a moment as though considering her response. "My son has always had some unusual, even unconventional, ideas. Some might even see them as strange. But he will need a wife who will stand by him, embrace those ideas without laughing at them and will help him realise his dreams."

"I like hearing Salazar's ideas," Rowena said with a smile.

"Yes," Katelyn smiled back. "I believe you do. You will make him a fine wife…and yes, you have my blessing."

"Thank you," Rowena replied as they turned back towards the house.

She could see Salazar silhouetted in the doorway as they walked back. Even from a distance he appeared agitated.

"Oh dear," Katelyn sighed as they approached him.

"Father's furious," Salazar said in a hushed tone as they reached his side. "Mother, do you mind if I speak with Rowena alone for a moment?"

"Of course not," Katelyn answered as she swept into the house.

Salazar opened a nearby door and ushered Rowena inside the empty room. "He refuses his permission for us to marry," he said as soon as he'd closed the door behind them.

"Your mother said you wouldn't wait for his permission," Rowena said, wondering if the older woman had been wrong about that. From the look on Salazar's face she was starting to suspect that was indeed the case.

"Father says he'll cut me off entirely if I marry you," Salazar said. He sank into one of the chairs with a gloomy expression on his face.

"Is that all?" Rowena asked, brightening up considerably. "I have money, my parents are as wealthy as the Slytherin family."

"It's not about the money," Salazar replied. "He'll banish me from the estate here, never to return and never to communicate with any member of the family again."

"Your mother?" Rowena guessed. Salazar nodded. "She gave us her blessing."

"It doesn't matter," Salazar said. "She won't go against my father's wishes if he banishes me. I can't leave her alone with him, not permanently."

"Is he that bad?" Rowena asked as she sank to her knees at Salazar's feet. He didn't reply; he didn't need to. The look in his eyes told her exactly what the elder Salazar Slytherin was capable of and all her dreams of a wedding the following Spring disappeared in that moment.

"I'll think of something," Salazar promised as he pulled her from the floor and onto his lap. "Or _you_ will, after all you _are_ the most intelligent witch alive."

"Flattery will get you everywhere," Rowena teased.

"I certainly hope so," Salazar laughed. "But not until we're married."

"I'm not sure I want to wait that long," Rowena whispered into his ear as her hand moved in the same direction her rival's had earlier that evening.

"What's going on here?" asked a voice in the doorway.

"Father!" Rowena gasped as she looked up to see both of her parents, Salazar's mother and a man who couldn't be anyone other than Salazar Slytherin Senior.

The two couples strode into the room and Katelyn closed the door behind them. Rowena thought she caught a small smile on the face of the woman and realised that she'd planned this. Whilst she and Salazar had been wondering how they were going to win his father round, his mother had taken matters into her own hands.

"Rowena, if you could take a seat that isn't already occupied," Adela Ravenclaw requested. Rowena complied with a blush.

Once everyone was seated Rowena watched as Katelyn took charge of the conversation.

"It does appear that our son has compromised Miss Ravenclaw," Katelyn began. "Her reputation can only be saved by a prompt wedding, in the Spring perhaps?"

"Well that's settled then," Rowena's father said in a jovial yet relieved voice.

Rowena smiled at Salazar as her parents nodded in agreement. Unfortunately he didn't return her smile and his gaze was focused entirely on his own father, the only person who had yet to speak on the matter.

The chatter of the others died down as they realised that perhaps all was not settled.

"Father?" Salazar asked hesitantly.

"The reputation of ladies only applies to _actual _ladies," Salazar Senior replied with a sneer. Rowena felt the blood rushing to fill her face as she dimly heard the gasps of her parents at the insult. "I will never give my consent to this marriage."

Rowena watched as her father leapt from his seat, his wand at the other man's throat within an instant.

"Your son has compromised my daughter," he hissed in cold fury. "You deny this? You refuse your consent?"

"Yes," Salazar's father replied in an icy voice. He then spoke something in parseltongue and a snake slithered out from the chair beneath her. She hopped to her feet, instinctively drawing closer to Salazar.

Her father stood still as the snake moved closer towards him. He lowered his wand slowly as the snake moved past him and curled up at the feet of the one that had summoned it.

"Rowena, we're leaving." Rowena looked at her father, as he stood eyeing the snake.

"Father?" she questioned hesitantly. She'd never seen him like this before and for some inexplicable reason she was frightened.

"Now, Rowena!" her father's order was clear but she still couldn't bring herself to move her feet.

"Rowena, let us discuss this matter at home," her mother pleaded and Rowena looked at her mother's fearful expression. She nodded reluctantly and with one last glance at Salazar she'd left the room with her parents.

At home she'd shouted, argued, cried and sulked, all to no avail. Nothing was going to sway her father in his insistence that she cease contact with Salazar Slytherin immediately. An owl from Salazar the following evening confirmed that his father was equally unwilling to change his mind about the idea of them marrying.

The next two weeks were the worst of her life and only an owl from her oldest friend Helga Hufflepuff had managed to pull her from her misery.

Her parents had been only to happy to agree to Rowena's suggestion that she visit with Helga for a few weeks and she'd packed her bags and left her childhood home for what would be the final time.

The first thing she'd done on arriving at Helga's home was borrow her friend's tawny owl and sent a letter to Salazar telling him of her whereabouts. He'd arrived the very next day with his own bags beside him.

Rowena never knew how her parents had found out that Salazar had joined her at Helga's. She hadn't planned it and there were relatively few wizards in the area to recognise the newcomers. But somehow, within a week of her arrival, her parents had found out and delivered their ultimatum.

Rowena passed her parents' letter to Salazar who read it several times before he looked up.

They sat in silence for nearly an hour before Helga returned from the nearby village and read the letter too.

"Your parents clearly don't think of me as much of a chaperone do they?" she said. "_Living in sin_ indeed. So what are you going to do?"

"She's going to have to return home," Salazar replied as though this was obvious to everyone.

"I am not!" declared Rowena, her mind made up at long last. She snatched the letter from Helga's hand, pulled her mother's ring from the finger it had been on since her sixteenth birthday five years before and sealed it within the parchment.

"No!" Salazar reached out and grabbed her hand as she started to attach it to the leg of her parents' owl. "You don't know what you're doing. You'll be an outcast, shunned by society."

"I don't care! I'll have _you_, and I'll have Helga," Rowena replied. She pulled her hand out of his grasp and turned her attention back to the owl. No one spoke until the owl was on its way home.

Her parents never replied.

It didn't matter. She had everything she wanted.


	7. The First Staff Meeting

Chapter 7 – The First Staff Meeting

"I hereby call the first staff meeting of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to order," Godric declared in his most authoritative tone. He banged on the table with a small hammer.

"You do realise that if you keep doing that, you're eventually going to wear a groove in the table?" Helga pointed out.

"I thought we said we didn't need one of those anyway," Rowena commented.

"I went back for it later," Godric said proudly. "I feel it gives the right impression of authority."

"It makes you look a berk," Salazar chimed in.

"Humph," Godric mumbled something incoherent and banged on the table again.

"When did we decide you were in charge anyway?" Rowena asked.

"We didn't," Salazar replied.

"We'll take turns," interrupted Godric. "I'll take charge this time, then Salazar next and then back to me again."

"Ahem," Helga coughed loudly and Godric jerked slightly in his seat. Rowena had a suspicion that a sharp kick had just been delivered to their self-appointed leader's shin.

"Very well, we'll all take turns," Godric amended. "Happy?"

"Thank you," Helga replied demurely.

"First order of business…er…feet." Godric looked around the table suspiciously. "Members of staff will keep their feet to themselves at all times during staff meetings."

"How can you tell we aren't?" Salazar asked innocently.

"He's not referring to us," answered Rowena. "Helga just kicked him, didn't you notice?"

"Er…" Salazar looked at the somewhat guilty looking Helga as Godric ducked down to look under the table.

"If _all_ staff could keep their feet to themselves," Godric asked as he sat back up.

Rowena sat up straighter so it looked as if she was complying with the request and smiled sweetly.

"Second order of business," Godric continued. "Sal will remain outside the castle at all times in the future."

"Hey!" Salazar exclaimed indignantly.

"Not you," Godric amended. "The goat. Blasted animal ate its way through two lots of bed hangings in the Gryffindor quarters yesterday and then chewed up my draft lesson plans as well for good measure."

Rowena snickered. It was about time someone else had a complaint against the little demon.

"I'll fix a pen for her near my herb garden," Helga promised as Godric marked a small tick on the parchment in front of him.

"Next, what subjects are we going to be teaching? We need to make sure that we're all in agreement about these." Godric paused at this point and handed out lists of subjects to each of the others.

"Do we _really _have to teach Divination?" Rowena asked with a sigh. "It's so pointless. You either have the sight or you don't, you can't teach someone to have the gift."

"And none of us have the gift either," Helga pointed out. "Who's going to teach it?"

"I'll come to that later," Godric said as Rowena continued to scan the list.

"Why are we teaching Muggle Studies?" asked Salazar with a frown. "What do the young witches and wizards need to know about muggles? Other than apparate out of there quick smart when they charge at you with flaming torches and pitchforks, I really don't see what the lessons will entail."

"I thought perhaps it might be useful for the youngsters to know enough about muggles so that they can blend into society and not attract the mobs with pitchforks," Godric replied.

"Still seems a bit pointless to me," Salazar muttered. "And you needn't think I'm teaching it either."

"I never thought that for a moment," Godric assured him. "We already know what we're going to be teaching, Muggle Studies is one of the subjects we need to sort out before term starts."

"What _are_ we all teaching again?" Rowena asked, knowing that the answer had been changing on a regular basis since their arrival in Scotland and not entirely trusting Godric's list.

"Helga is going to take charge of Herbology and Charms, I will take Defence Against the Dark Arts and Care of Magical Creatures, you Rowena will be teaching Transfiguration and History of Magic, Salazar will be teaching Potions and Astronomy."

"About that," Salazar interrupted. "When I agreed to teach Astronomy it wasn't clear that I'd be up one of your ruddy towers at the time."

"Wilbur knows a lot about Astronomy," Helga suggested. "Perhaps he could teach that as well as flying."

"Will he want paying more?" Salazar asked.

"If he doesn't think of asking for more, I'll be sure to remind him," Helga replied sweetly.

"Well if that's settled it means you can take over one of the remaining subjects," Godric said to Salazar with a smile of satisfaction.

"I'm not teaching Divination or Muggle Studies," Salazar muttered. "Which others are we short of staff on?"

"Ancient Runes and Arithmancy," Godric replied.

"My two worst subjects," Salazar replied with a groan. "Rowena you're an expert in Ancient Runes, swap you Transfiguration for that one."

Rowena frowned slightly. Transfiguration was her favourite subject and the one she was most looking forward to teaching.

"Oh go on Rowena," Salazar begged.

"I'll swap History of Magic for Ancient Runes," she finally conceded.

Salazar contemplated this for a moment or two.

"Come on Rowena, be reasonable," Godric interrupted. "You know Salazar doesn't particularly like History of Magic either."

"He knows it all though," Rowena pointed out. "And I'm much better at Transfiguration than he is."

"That doesn't mean he'll back down and teach History of Magic," Godric pointed out. "If one of you doesn't back down we'll still be arguing about this when the students arrive in September."

"Please _Sal_," Rowena begged in the most whiney voice she could muster. She inched the toe of her boot a little further up his leg as she smiled innocently across the table.

"All right, History of Magic it is," Salazar replied with a small groan of resignation.

Godric scribbled the amendments to the staffing arrangements onto the parchment hurriedly before anyone changed their minds.

Rowena smiled sweetly and blew him a kiss across the table.

"Score one to Rowena," Helga muttered under her breath to Rowena. She'd clearly noticed the activities under the table even if Godric hadn't. "Don't you feel even slightly guilty about how you handled that?"

"No," Rowena replied with a grin. "He'll come around when he's got over the idea that I thought of it first."

"Right," Godric said with a glare at the whispering women. "That leaves Muggle Studies, Arithmancy and Divination."

"Anyway, didn't you mention last week that you'd found someone who might want to teach Divination?" Salazar asked Helga. "That batty old loon down south."

"She's just a little eccentric," Helga replied. "She might take the Divination post but I don't know about the Muggle Studies or Arithmancy. It'll save money if we can find someone who'll do two subjects like the rest of us."

"Well send her an owl and ask her if she wants to teach one of those anyway," Godric suggested.

Helga nodded in agreement. They still had a little over two months before they opened their doors to the students so things weren't entirely desperate with regard to teaching staff just yet.

"I think I know someone who might take on the post on librarian as well," Helga said with a smile. "I've already acquired the services of a married couple who are prepared to cook for the school. They're bringing servants with them, house elves I believe, and I've prepared quarters for them all near the kitchens. I'll be helping them when I can. As for the other staff, a caretaker shouldn't be too difficult, there have been a couple of interested parties in Hogsmeade itself. But I'm having problems finding a healer prepared to come out here. We just can't offer the same sort of money as other establishments."

"Well keep trying and we'll all ask around as well," Salazar said. "My mother might know a healer, I'll send her an owl."

"The only other subject is apparating and I think that should be taught by each of us to the students in our own houses," Helga concluded. "It's not really necessary for the younger students of course but in a couple of years time I think that should work. It shouldn't take more than a few months to teach them so should be easy enough to fit into our timetables as we'll only be teaching one subject each by then."

"Finally we have to sort out the students," Godric said. "Who we're taking and so forth."

"I think we agreed that we'd only take eleven to fourteen year olds this first year," Rowena said. "Any more than that and we'll need more staff right away."

"Agreed," everyone replied.

"We'll keep the older students on until they're of age and then they'll leave after that year. That gives us plenty of time to find more teachers." Again everyone nodded in agreement.

"What about _who_ we invite to come here?" Salazar asked as everyone else suddenly began intently studying the subject lists again. It was a subject that had cropped up a couple of times before but now it _had _to be dealt with instead of being brushed aside for later.

"Everyone with magical abilities should be invited to study here," Helga said firmly.

"You don't think that might be a little bit dangerous?" Salazar asked. "Sometimes magic appears in a family of muggles."

"There's nothing wrong with being muggle-born," Helga stated, her voice rising slightly with conviction.

"I'm more concerned about exposing the students and staff to the aforementioned mobs with the pitchforks if we start inviting the children of muggles in here. We've put a lot of protective charms on the place to keep muggles away, it won't do much good if we then invite them here via their children."

"You don't seriously think the parents of any student would attack us?" Godric asked with a sigh of impatience.

"It wouldn't be the first time a father or mother have turned on their child because they have powers they don't understand," Salazar retorted.

"But we would help them to understand," Helga pointed out.

"You can't make someone understand if they don't want to," Salazar snapped. "We have to think of the safety of _all_ the students."

"We aren't excluding students just because they're muggle-born," Helga snapped back.

"Maybe we should limit it to those with the strength of character and bravery to stand up to their families if things do go the way Salazar's suggesting?" Godric put forward.

"If we're going to start limiting students based whether they pose a danger to the others, maybe we should limit it to those who have had previous magical training and can control their powers already?" Rowena waited for the others to consider her suggestion. She already had visions of explosions and magical accidents every other day as the untrained children wreaked havoc in their school.

"We're not limiting the student admissions," Helga snapped again. "Not on how brave they are, not on how clever they are, and especially not on who their parents are!"

Everyone fell silent as Helga made her speech. It was rare that she raised her voice and ever rarer that she really lost her temper. As such they all listened whenever her voice was raised.

The other three cast sheepish looks at each other as Helga glared at each of them in turn.

"We've already decided to split the students into houses," Helga continued in a normal tone. "If you all have reservations about certain students then there's nothing stopping you from excluding them from your own houses. I'll take any that none of you want to deal with. I'm sure we'll manage."

Everyone nodded in agreement and the atmosphere soon cleared, their differences quickly forgotten in the excitement of their venture.


	8. Potions and Interviews

**Chapter 8 – Potions and How Not to Conduct an Interview**

The school was finally built with still two months to go before they opened their doors to their first students. The four founders were extremely proud of all they had accomplished in the short time they'd had. Every classroom was numbered, every library book was catalogued and everything they could think of was in place.

There had been a few hiccups along the way. Godric had altered the school timetables twice, which had resulted in a few minor problems with Rowena's moving staircases. The third year Slytherin Charms students would be taking a rather long walk to get to their classroom for their lessons on Thursdays for instance. Rowena had pointed out that in this case she simply couldn't move the staircases around to accommodate them as it would mean cutting off access to the hospital wing at that time. Since Godric's Care of Magical Creatures classes were on this day as well it was unthinkable not to have easy access to the hospital wing; they all still remembered last year's unfortunate incident with the unicorn.

But all in all the moving staircases had been a great success and would actually help students to navigate their way around the school. She'd even factored in the lessons of the older students in the following three years. Of course this would only work as long as no one altered the timetable or the uses of the classrooms at any point in the future…but who would do a silly thing like that when it was so well planned?

All in all they found themselves well pleased with the castle that was soon to be opened as Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Since they had managed to finish so far ahead of schedule it transpired that Rowena found herself at a bit of a loose end on the sunny morning in early July.

Godric had gone to make arrangements for the transportation of students to the school. Most of the children would be delivered to the edge of the grounds by their parents but there were some who were in difficulties in getting there, mostly those who were muggle-born and unable to apparate alongside their older relatives.

Helga was interviewing potential caretakers in Hogsmeade and Salazar had slipped out of their chambers and disappeared goodness knows where before she had even woken.

She wondered if he was in their secret chamber but had no way of accessing it to find out. She'd tried to remember where the entrance to the back tunnel was located but it was easier said than done. Salazar had sealed the tunnel shut so that whenever they wanted to access it all they had to do was use their wands to tap the bricks surrounding the entrance in the right sequence. Unfortunately the long dark tunnel all looked the same and she had yet to find the right spot without Salazar's assistance.

She had just given up for the day and was wandering back towards the entrance hall when she heard the sound of something being dropped in what she'd previously assumed to be an empty Potions classroom.

Turning back she approached the door and peeked inside.

The room was a hive of activity with no less than nine cauldrons containing what appeared to be a wide variety of partially completed potions.

Rowena watched quietly from the doorway as Salazar moved from one desk to another, chopping ingredients here, stirring a cauldron there, all the while smoothly keeping each and every potion under control. The only one he didn't seem to be working on was the one in the very centre of the room which he hovered near several times as he worked but never actually touched.

He had just stopped near that same potion for the fourth time when he let her know that he was aware of her presence. "Rowena, either come in and close the door behind you, or bugger off and find something useful to do. The draft you're causing is sending all the most noxious fumes in my direction."

Rowena stepped into the room and closed the door. "You really should consider Helga's offer to move the Potions classrooms to the second floor. It's not like you'd be in one of the towers; it's quite close to the ground in fact and closer than the History of Magic classroom up on fifth."

"Do you all really believe I wanted the Potions classrooms down here because of my little, and I stress the word _little_, problem with heights?" Salazar looked incredulous as he rolled his eyes.

"Isn't it?" Rowena asked, wondering what she was missing here. "Surely it'd be easier to have the classes in rooms with windows so you can open them and get some fresh air when the fumes are bad?"

"And what do you suppose would happen when a stray insect, or dandelion seed, or whatever came fluttering into the window and landed in the potion of a distracted student?"

Rowena shrugged. "I don't remember any potions that require dandelion seeds," she admitted.

"That's because most of them don't," Salazar replied. "And adding things to potions that shouldn't be in them is not the brightest thing to do, is it?"

"Oh."

"Besides, this works just as well, much better in fact." He nodded to the central potion as he turned down the heat on one of the other cauldrons.

"What is it?" Rowena asked as she moved closer to see what he meant.

"I'll pretend you didn't ask that," answered Salazar with a sigh. "I know brewing potions was never your favourite pastime but I'm sure even you can recognise this one."

Rowena sniffed, partly just to be haughty and partly to see if she could figure out what it was and salvage a little dignity.

"You've been brewing _amortentia_?" she asked as she finally recognised the contents as the most powerful love potion in existence.

"Ten house points to Ravenclaw," Salazar replied with a smirk. "Took you long enough."

"But why?" asked Rowena as irrational jealousy kicked out common sense for the morning.

Something in her voice must have alerted Salazar to the direction her mind had wandered in and he turned to stare at her.

"And get out of my head!" she snapped, feeling the familiar sensation of him probing into her thoughts. It never usually bothered her but her temper was rising by the second.

Salazar retreated both mentally and physically and took a seat on one of the stools behind him. He folded his arms across his chest and looked at her calmly.

"Well aren't you going to say something?" asked Rowena when she could bear the silence no longer.

"What do you smell when you're near the potion?" Salazar asked, taking her somewhat by surprise with his seemingly irrelevant question.

"The Canterbury Bells that used to grow back at the Manor and…" she broke off as she felt her face flushing.

"And me," Salazar concluded for her. "I'm brewing eight different kinds of healing potions in here this morning and most of them smell as bad as they'll taste when they're done. If I leave to go outside for some air, then I risk ruining the whole batch. So I brewed the amortentia before I started so that I'd be able to smell you when the fumes were getting too bad."

"Oh."

"Yes, 'oh'. Now would you mind lowering your wand," Salazar asked calmly. Rowena looked at her hand and saw that she was indeed pointing her wand rather threateningly at Salazar; she hadn't even realised she'd pulled it out of her robes. She lowered it and tucked it back inside her robes.

"You really smell me in the amortentia?" she asked as Salazar hurried from his seat to one of the potions that had started to bubble over whilst she'd had her wand trained on him.

"Of course," he replied in a tone that clearly conveyed that under any other circumstances he'd not have thought the question worthy of an answer.

"Have you ever…?" Rowena hesitated as she drew a little nearer to the potion.

"If you're about to ask whether I've ever slipped you any of it, then you'd better reach for your wand again, right now," Salazar warned.

"I wasn't," Rowena hurried to assure him. The thought hadn't actually crossed her mind. "I was wondering if you'd ever tasted it."

"No," Salazar replied as he moved over to another desk, adding some roots to the potion there. "It's pretty powerful stuff and not to be used lightly."

He looked up from the cauldron, satisfied that everything seemed to be under control. Rowena stood looking at him with a strange look in her eyes and the index finger of her right hand in her mouth.

"You didn't?" he asked.

Rowena removed her finger from her mouth and smiled.

"Please tell me you didn't?" he asked again.

Rowena edged her way round the desk towards him.

"Oh bugger, you did!"

* * *

Helga sat in the small hovel on the outskirts of Hogsmeade. The witch sitting opposite her took a long swig of mead. Helga took her momentary distraction to take a quick look at her list of questions.

It was strange how she'd assumed that she would be the one questioning the applicant and not the other way around.

So far she hadn't managed to get a single one of her own questions answered. Heck, she hadn't managed to string more than two or three words together since she'd stepped into the room.

"Right," the woman continued with a toothless grin. "As you can see I keep a shipshape sort of place."

"You do?" Helga asked a she looked around the room in astonishment. If this was shipshape then she pitied all who sailed in the conveyance. They'd be sunk before they left port. A stray chicken wandered across the straw covered floor and a cauldron in the fireplace bubbled over causing various hissing noises and a variety of multicoloured flames.

"Something wrong with me place?" the woman asked, rather more aggressively than was necessary.

"No, no, it's…er…lovely and homely," Helga stammered.

"So when do I start?"

"Start?" Helga parroted.

"Working at this little school of yours…when do I start?"

"The school isn't that little," said Helga firmly. Perhaps there was a way to put off this particular applicant because she really didn't want the woman in front of her working at Hogwarts. Not least of which because she had a feeling that the lonely looking goat currently poking its head in the window was the mate of Sal and she didn't fancy being brought before the local Sheriff on charges of goat theft.

"Can't be that big," the woman replied with a grunt. "You've only been there a few months."

"Oh, it's bigger than you think," Helga said with a smile of commiseration. "It's a fully furnished castle."

"You've built a castle up there?" the woman sounded like she didn't quite believe her.

"Indeed."

"Are we being invaded?" the woman asked as she grabbed her wand with one hand and a poker from the fireplace with the other.

Helga jumped up with a squeak and scurried for the door. "We'll let you know," she called back as she ran down the path, chickens and geese fleeing at her approach.

"Well that was productive," she muttered after she'd caught her breath. "I hope the other applicant is at least on the right side of sanity."

Luckily for Helga the man who had submitted the second application from Hogsmeade was completely sane, or at least he gave every impression of being so…at first.

"You keep a lovely home," Helga complimented the man as she looked around the small abode.

From the outside the building had looked like nothing more than a shack, very similar to every other hovel in the village. Inside however it was an entirely different story.

The room was spotless, she'd even go so far as to say immaculate. There was no sign of any indication that the occupant of the property was a wizard and if Helga hadn't known that the village of Hogsmeade was the only entirely magical community in the country she'd have thought herself in the home of an elderly muggle matron. Lace doilies were scattered on every surface and there was nothing even slightly out of place. She seemed to have found her caretaker.

"You mind taking your shoes off?" the wizard said as she looked around the room.

Helga did a double take as the man pointed down to her muddy boots that were currently soiling the polished marble floor. She muttered an apology as she took them off and left them by the door. She blushed as she realised she had a hole in the toe of her left stocking. She blushed even more when she realised their potential employee had spotted it as well.

What followed was the most disastrous interview she had ever been a party to. Unfortunately she didn't realise that this was the case until she stood up to leave, assuring the man that she was almost certain that he'd been successful in obtaining employment as Hogwart's first caretaker.

He had apparently been under the impression that he was interviewing her to see if she was a suitable employer. Unfortunately he informed her coldly that she fell short of his requirements.

"Well, how do you like that?" Helga complained to herself as she pulled on her boots and started the long walk back to Hogwarts.

The path that Godric and Salazar had constructed the previous week made the journey far easier than it had been the first time she'd travelled this way. Her pace however was just as slow, disappointment at the events of the morning weighing heavily on her shoulders.

She arrived at the newly constructed gates to the school to find a stranger standing at them, clearly wondering how to gain access to the grounds.

"Can I help you?" she asked as she approached him.

"Looking fer work Ma'am," the young man said, bobbing a small respectful bow. "'eard this 'ere place is looking fer staff. Came ter offer me services. You too?"

Helga wondered what it was about her appearance that conveyed to the casual observer that she was looking for work, and not in fact one of the Headmistresses of the school.

"Actually I'm…" she began but the young man, who was clearly a bundle of nerves didn't seem to hear her.

"What do yer think they're like? Do yer know what posts is open? Have yer met any of 'em?"

"What post are you interested in?" Helga asked, curious as to what the young man had to offer.

"Well it's difficult like, yer see, I'm a…well I've got…I can't do no magic."

"You're a Squib?" Helga asked, sympathy evident in her tone.

A flash of anger appeared in the young man's eyes as he picked up on her pity.

"No chance of 'em takin' on someone like me is there? Ne'er mind that I'd be workin' twice as 'ard an' twice as long as the rest of 'em." He kicked at a stone on the ground before turning away from the gates and starting back down the path back to Hogsmeade.

"Wait!" Helga called after him. "The school's looking for a caretaker if you think you can manage the job."

The young man turned round and looked back at Helga, then at the castle, then back to Helga again.

"They'd ne'er 'ire a Squib," he said morosely.

"Yes we would," Helga replied. The young man looked at her in surprise, though whether that was surprise at the fact that they might hire him or surprise that she was in fact the person doing the hiring, she didn't know. He didn't carry on down the path so she continued. "If they're the best applicant, and so far you are."

"No one else want the job?" the young man asked with a flash of unexpected humour.

"Actually you're the third person I've spoken to about the position today," Helga answered.

The young man looked back at the castle again. Helga could see the hesitation in his eyes. She didn't blame him. Even for a wizard the position of caretaker was going to be a difficult one. The size of the building alone would make the job one of the most difficult they had to offer. Unfortunately it was the only position they could offer a Squib, especially now the position of librarian had been filled by a young witch named Jocelyn Jones.

"I'm Helga Hufflepuff," she greeted him as she held out her hand. He shook it with a firm grip and an easy smile. "Augustus Addison," he replied.

"Would you like a tour of the castle, before you decide if you want the post?" Helga asked as she tapped her wand on the gate and stepped back as it swung open. Augustus nodded and let her lead the way.

"You'll find a lot of the castle will take care of itself," Helga said as they walked into the Entrance Hall. "There are plenty of storage cupboards so there won't be any problems with carrying too many cleaning utensils up and down the stairs. Erm…about the stairs…they move about a bit. We'll provide you with a rota so you don't get lost because of them…"

Helga showed Augustus the first floor and the kitchens before leading the way down to the Slytherin quarters.

"You might find the damp gets into these quarters a bit more than the rest," she said as she walked down the tunnel. "It stretches out under the lake and although we have charms holding back the water so we don't flood it does still get a little moist down here."

Augustus nodded in understanding.

"Ah, it sounds like Professor Slytherin is in," Helga said as they approached the door to one of the Potions classrooms. "Let me introduce you. These dungeons are his quarters and those of his students so he'll be able to let you know the trouble spots."

She knocked on the door and walked into the room with a bright smile on her face. This interview was certainly going better than first two of the day.

Helga froze instantly two paces into the room, her face turning redder by the second. She backed out again, closed the door quickly and ushered Augustus back down the tunnel as she muttered "maybe later, he's a little busy right now."

"Er, can I ask yer a question?" Augustus asked as they reached the Entrance Hall.

Helga nodded as the young man looked back down the tunnel they'd just exited.

"Jus' what sort of an establishment are yer runnin' 'ere?"


	9. Requirements

**Chapter 9 – Requirements**

"But _you _wanted the staircase to lead to that corridor only on weekends!" exclaimed Rowena as she waved her hands in frustration.

"I'm thinking that perhaps that might not be frequently enough," Godric admitted as he descended the newly moved staircase to where the rest of the founders were waiting.

"How did you get up there anyway?" Helga asked. "The staircase moved back to the other position last night at midnight."

"I was devising lesson plans last evening and lost track of time," Godric replied.

"You mean you've been stuck up there all night?" Rowena asked as she bit back a smile.

"I was certainly not _stuck_," Godric assured her with a frown. "Had I had my wand with me I'd have been down here again in no time at all."

"Why do you keep leaving your wand lying around anyway?" Helga asked. "We thought you were lost again."

"I have _never_ been lost," Godric announced with a pompous sniff. "I have always known _exactly_ where I am, even if I haven't recognised any of my surroundings."

"Yes Godric, that's what the rest of us call 'being lost'," Salazar pointed out.

"So do you feel up to our second staff meeting?" Helga asked. "We can put it off until this afternoon if you would rather get some sleep."

"No need for that," Godric said as he shook his head. "I just used the bedchamber up there. Good idea that by the way."

"Who in the world would put a bedchamber up there?" Helga asked. "Rowena was that you?"

"I love the way you automatically assume it was me," Rowena replied as she shook her head. "Was it you Salazar?"

"No," Salazar answered. "Are you sure there was a bedchamber, Godric?"

"I think I am perfectly able to recognise a bedchamber when I see one."

"So who put it up there?" Rowena asked. "If none of us did and no one else can alter the structure of the building, then how did it get there?"

"Salazar, where are you going?" Helga called out as the man turned and ran up the stairs that Godric had just come down. "You'll be late for the meeting!"

Rowena turned and ran after Salazar, followed immediately by Godric.

Helga shrugged and followed them up the stairs. It's not like the meeting could start without all of them.

"What is it?" Rowena asked as she caught up with Salazar who was standing in the middle of the corridor looking at a blank wall.

"Don't you recognise where we are?" he asked instead of answering her question.

"Somewhere on the seventh floor," Rowena replied with a shrug. "To be honest the corridors all kind of look the same to me. I keep telling you we need to get some pictures up or some statues or _something _to let everyone know where there are."

"Are you going to enlighten us as to why you're staring at a blank wall some time this morning?" asked Helga with a touch of impatience. Salazar took no notice and started to prod the wall with his wand, muttering under his breath at the same time.

Rowena leaned back against the opposite wall. She recognised the type of mood Salazar was in. Something was bothering him and until he figured it out there would be no point in trying to get anything resembling sense out of him.

"Is there any chance we can get to the staff meeting before the rest of the staff send out a search party for _us_?" Helga asked as she tapped her foot on the stone floor.

Godric meanwhile had wandered further down the corridor and was staring at a dark patch on the floor. "Is this blood?" he called out as he crouched down to get a closer look.

"Elf made wine," Salazar called back. "Rowena spilt it there the weekend before last."

"Hey!" Rowena poked Salazar in the back. "You can't blame me for every little thing that gets spilled around here."

"I'm not," answered Salazar distractedly as he continued to tap at the stones. "But you were the one who dropped the glass of wine there. I was with you at the time."

Rowena frowned, then smiled suddenly as she remembered the incident. "Oh!" She looked about her, at where Godric was looking at the wine stain, trying his hardest to remove it with a spell, but for some reason having little success, and then frowned in puzzled confusion. A moment later she joined Salazar in tapping the wall with her wand.

"Godric, would you leave the ruddy stain alone," Helga ordered. "We have a caretaker now who can take care of it."

"But why won't it disappear with magic?" Godric asked.

"Probably a result of having so many spells on the place all at once," Helga said. "Leave it for Augustus."

"Oh, is that his name?" Rowena asked, momentarily distracted from her prodding at the wall.

"Haven't you spoken to him yet?" Helga asked.

"He keeps dashing off every time he sees me coming," Rowena said with a confused shrug before turning her attention back to the wall.

"Sounds like you have an admirer," Godric teased. "_Sal_ better watch out."

Salazar snorted with laughter. "If the reason he's running off is because he's taken a liking to Rowena then we have other problems as he keeps running off when he sees me coming as well."

"Well what do you expect?" Helga asked. "I've never been so embarrassed as when we walked in on you like that."

"You should have knocked," replied Salazar in a thoroughly unapologetic tone.

"I did. Besides, you were only in one of the classrooms," Helga pointed out. "It's not like we'd walked into your private chambers."

"Don't worry about that now Helga," Godric said. "It's one of the little things I plan to bring up at the staff meeting."

"_What_ is?" Rowena asked at the same time as Helga pointed out yet again that they were supposed to be _at_ that very staff meeting right now.

"It doesn't seem to be opening," Salazar muttered as he finally stopped tapping at the stones.

"That's because there's nothing there," an exasperated Helga sighed.

"Yes there is," Rowena insisted. "There's a bedroom here. It was all decorated in silver and blue."

"It was red and gold," Godric argued. "I remember it distinctly, the Gryffindor colours."

"Not when we saw it," Salazar said. "It was a combination of the Slytherin and Ravenclaw colours."

"Are you sure?" Godric asked. "If you were doing what I suspect you were, it's entirely possible you might have been too distracted to notice the colours the room was decorated in."

"We weren't _that_ distracted," Salazar snorted. "Anyway, aren't you colour blind?"

"Not _that_ colour blind!"

By this point Helga looked as though she was about to perform some serious harm on her co-founders if they didn't start moving back towards the staff room soon. "Okay, if we can leave the mystery of the disappearing bedchamber until some other time and _please_ get to the staff room some time before sunset!"

"Exaggerating much?" Rowena asked as she reluctantly stopped tapping at the wall herself.

"Come on Rowena, let's go suffer through Godric's meeting before Helga gives herself an ulcer." Salazar guided her away from the wall and past Helga and Godric towards the staircase.

"Actually you're supposed to be chairing this meeting," Helga pointed out with a degree of reluctance.

"I am?" Salazar stopped and frowned. "Oh, right, I am, aren't I?"

And with that Salazar's pace quickened to a brisk trot that left the others behind.

"If I'd known that was all it would take to get him to move, I'd have said that in the first place," Helga muttered as they hurried to keep up with him.

* * *

Most of the rest of the staff were already assembled in the staff common room by the time the four founders arrived for the meeting. Everyone stood up a little straighter and tried to look smart and attentive when they saw the founders approaching.

Godric entered the room first and immediately waved his wand so that the largest table in the room and the surrounding chairs shifted into place. A second swish of the wand and ink, quills and parchments appeared in each of the places.

"If everyone could take their allocated seats," Godric asked with a smile as the witches and wizards they had hired shuffled into the room.

"Allocated seats?" Rowena asked as she approached the table. She soon saw what it was that he was referring to. Each sheet of parchment had a name written across the top. "Looks like you're sitting here Helga," she commented.

Helga took her seat and Rowena smirked as she saw that Godric had placed himself at the far end of the table. Her smile disappeared soon enough however when she saw that Godric had put herself and Salazar some distance away from each other as well. It wasn't that she couldn't bear to be too far from him or anything else that silly, just slight irritation at the feeling that they were being treated like naughty children.

She was about to sit down when the writing on the parchment in front of her faded to nothing and then new letters formed indicating that the seat she was about to take was that of Jocelyn Jones. "Your seat's here, Rowena," Salazar called from the opposite end of the table with a quick wink in her direction. "Something the matter Godric?"

Godric decided against saying anything in front of the rest of the staff as Rowena took her new seat beside Salazar.

Once everyone had taken their seats it was apparent that they were one person short.

"Where's Wilbur?" Salazar asked Helga with a frown.

"He'll be arriving this afternoon," she confirmed. "He said he had to see a man about a bludger."

"A what?" Rowena asked.

"A bludger," Helga repeated.

"What's a bludger?" asked Rhys Lynch, the recently arrived Arithmancy and Muggle Studies professor. Smartly dressed and rather snobbish, Professor Lynch fancied himself an authority on every subject imaginable. He found it unbearable to be party to a conversation where someone else knew more than he did about the subject at hand.

Helga looked at Professor Lynch and gave a shrug. She was sure that Wilbur would wish to tell everyone all about Quidditch when he arrived and there was no point in wasting even more of the meeting time on the subject.

"Maybe we should just start the meeting without him?" Godric suggested. "No sense in putting it off until he gets here. Helga will fill him in on the important details when he arrives."

"Agreed," Salazar said as he looked picked up the parchment in front of him.

"My agenda for the meeting," Godric pointed out, rather unnecessarily. The parchment unrolled revealing line after line of items he felt the staff should be discussing. "The items are in no particular order, just as they came to my attention."

"Humph," Salazar looked down the parchment. "If we have to go through all this lot today then we'll probably still be here when Wilbur arrives."

"Every item is important," Godric pointed out. "The sooner we start the sooner we finish."

Rowena rolled her eyes and started doodling on the parchment in front of her.

"Item one," Salazar began. "Student admissions."

"I think you'll find that's actually item three," Godric interrupted.

"And I think you'll find that neither the whereabouts of that ruddy goat nor Professor Ravenclaw's and my sleeping arrangements are what _I_ would call a priority for staff meetings," Salazar replied.

"Mr Addison has Sal under control now," Helga informed the staff with a nod towards the caretaker who seemed a little shocked at being singled out at the meeting. "He's built her a more secure pen and she hasn't escaped it as yet."

"You have our thanks," Salazar said with a nod of acknowledgement to the embarrassed Augustus. "Now, student admissions."

"I really do think we need to discuss item two," Godric insisted.

"Very well." Salazar gave a smirk and turned to Rowena. "Your room or mine tonight, dear?"

Helga snorted with laughter as Rowena flushed. Despite the fact that she'd been mortifying her family by living with Salazar for some five years now, she still couldn't seem to get over the embarrassment that habitually enveloped her in situations like this. She blamed her parents for the way they'd brought her up; Salazar silently thanked them, he thought it was amusing.

"I mean for when the students arrive," Godric said. "As heads of our own houses we need to be accessible all the time, including at night. In cases of emergency…"

"All right, all right," Salazar cut him off before they wasted the entire meeting on the issue. "We'll work something out before school starts. Rowena, do make a note to think of something. Now, student admissions."

Salazar flicked his wand towards the centre of the table and a large pile of parchments appeared.

"These are the applications that have been made for our consideration. We Heads will sort out who will go in which school house after considering each one. I don't believe we need to have the entire faculty present for that. However there are a number of queries that have been raised by the students and their parents. Firstly there have been a number of parents asking if students can bring pets with them to the school."

"I don't see why not," Helga immediately responded. "We'll just include in the initial welcoming letter that they can bring pets. We've plenty of room here and Augustus is happy to help out with their upkeep."

"Erm…it's not quite that simple," Salazar explained. "One parent wants to know if his eleven year old son could bring their pet manticore with him."

"He what?" Helga's jaw dropped. "I was thinking more like owls and cats."

"Weren't we all?" Salazar commented. "If someone could please pick Augustus up from the floor?"

Madam Jones bobbed down to help the startled caretaker back into his seat.

"I think we should limit what animals we allow into the school," Salazar said. "And draw the line well before manticores."

"Actually they are rather fascinating creatures," Godric mused. "The venom is certainly worth studying and they are remarkably intelligent, at least when they're not attacking anyone that goes near them."

"You want to go and study it, then go and pay the student a home visit," Helga muttered. "This is a school, not a breeding ground for lethal and dangerous monsters."

Godric looked rather crestfallen at this but let the matter drop.

"Of the other animals requested," Salazar continued. "We have mainly owls and a few other delivery birds, cats, a couple of horses and one child who apparently can't bear to be parted from his pet toad."

"Who in the world has a pet toad?" Rowena asked.

"Reginald Williams, apparently," Salazar replied. "I don't think we can really come up with a reason why he can't bring it to school. What about the rest of the animals?"

"No problem with the cats and various delivery birds," Godric said. "Although I still don't know where we're going to keep the latter and how we're going to keep the cats from them all."

"Shove them up in the spare tower," Rowena suggested. "No one else has claimed it. Most of the cats won't venture all the way up there, it's too far from the kitchens."

"And what about the horses?" Helga asked. "Do we allow students to bring horses here? They involve a lot of care."

"I can take care of 'em," Augustus piped up.

"Excellent," Salazar announced. "That seems to be all the pet requests sorted. Godric can go visit the manticore residence and tell them the bad news." Godric brightened up slightly at this.

"Item five. Yes Godric, I'm ignoring item four," Salazar forestalled the other man's protest before he could form the words. "I'll brew what potions I like and if Rowena's daft enough to taste them, that's her problem."

Rowena kicked him. Salazar smirked. "Now about item five…"

The meeting dragged on for several hours despite Salazar's attempts to skip various items on Godric's list. Finally the staff had discussed and debated every topic and the end of the list was reached.

"Right, if that's all, then I think lunch might be ready now." Salazar stood up ready to leave when the only person to have remained silent throughout the meeting suddenly spoke.

"Balls!" Professor Daisy Plunkett suddenly shouted.

"Pardon?" several other people asked, although most just stared at her, having forgotten the Divination Professor was even there.

"I've lost my crystal balls," Professor Plunkett said as she glared around the table. "I want to know who's taken my crystal balls."

"They've been moved to your tower quarters, remember?" Helga sincerely hoped that they were still there but couldn't see why anyone would want to move them.

"My quarters are in a tower?" Professor Plunkett asked.

"Yes," Helga nodded. "Don't you remember? We took you up there a few days ago and got you settled. The crystal balls are in your classroom."

"What do I need a classroom for? I'm a bit old to be going back to school."

"No, you're teaching, remember?" Helga looked slightly panicked at the blank look on Professor Plunkett's face.

Professor Plunkett nodded thoughtfully and shuffled to the door. Everyone stood back to give her a wide berth, just in case her particular brand of insanity was contagious.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as she opened the door. "Er, what subject am I teaching again?" she asked as she turned back to the rest of the room with a look of extreme confusion on her face.

"You hired her, you can sort her out," Salazar whispered to Helga as he busied himself with sorting out piles of papers that were in a perfectly acceptable order already.

* * *

Helga steered Professor Plunkett to her quarters whilst the rest of the staff gravitated towards the kitchens where the smell of roast venison that had been tormenting them for the last hour was coming from.

The rest of staff were still eating their late lunch in the Great Hall when the sound of something breaking came from outside in the Entrance Hall.

"Sounds like Wilbur's arrived," said Godric between bites meat.

The sound of Helga's scream echoed through the room a moment later.

"That doesn't sound like a scream of joy at the arrival of the love of her life," Salazar said as he hurriedly put down his goblet.

The staff rushed to the door to see what was the matter.

"Duck!" came Wilbur's shout as they rushed into the Entrance Hall.

Rowena ducked just in time, aided by the quick-thinking Salazar who pulled her to the floor. Jocelyn unfortunately wasn't as quick and the object flying at rapid speed around the entrance knocked her off her feet.

Rowena, with the assistance of Augustus, dragged Jocelyn back into the safety of the Great Hall.

"I think she's just knocked out," she said after a cursory examination of the woman.

"What was it?" Augustus asked with a nervous glance through the gap in the door.

"I don't know," Rowena admitted. "But something tells me it might be a bludger. Wait here with Jocelyn until we give you the all clear."

She poked a cautious head out the door to see Salazar, Godric and Rhys crouched on the ground whilst Wilbur shot off spells in every direction. She ducked down and crawled across the floor to Salazar.

"There she goes!" Wilbur yelled as he dashed to up the stairs towards the first floor.

Rowena and the others followed him, along with Helga who had ducked to avoid the bludger as it passed her on the stairs.

"A couple of things for your next staff meeting, Godric," Rowena said as they surveyed the damage the bludger was wreaking. "I suggest we make finding a healer our number one priority and…" she ducked as the bludger came dangerously close. "Do you really think we should put Quidditch on the school timetable? Because at the moment I think I'd rather face a manticore than one of Wilbur's bludgers!"


	10. A Few Hiccups

**Chapter 10 – A Few Hiccups**

For the next fifteen minutes the founders, Wilbur, and Rhys chased the bludger around the school, watching helplessly as it smashed through doors, windows and one of the staircases.

Finally Wilbur managed to catch it, or more accurately it flew at him and he just happened to keep a hold of it as it hit him in the stomach.

"What did you let it out for anyway?" an exhausted and exasperated Helga asked as she clutched at her sides to try to relieve the stitch she'd now got from racing around the castle.

"Didn't mean too," Wilbur replied. "Was looking for my dinner and it sort of escaped."

"I take it that's a bludger?" Salazar asked as he nodded to the now contained ball that was straining to escape once more.

"That she is," Wilbur replied with a satisfied nod. "Got a right good deal for them too."

"Er…them?" Rowena asked with a frown.

"Yep, got two for the price of one," Wilbur answered with pride. "We were only going to use one in the game but how could I refuse an offer like that. Took them both off the seller's hands for him. Might even make it more exciting with two in the game."

"Exciting?" Helga squeaked.

"What would anyone want with those things anyway?" Rowena asked. "I mean besides for your Quidditch?"

"They're demolition bludgers," Wilbur replied. "Been used for years to clear away derelict buildings and what have you. Nothing stands in their way when they want to destroy something."

"Yes." Godric nodded. "I can imagine. Pity about that staircase though." He pointed behind them and the others turned to see that one of the steps in the staircase he was referring to was now completely gone. Had it been a normal staircase the position of the missing step would have been such that the entire staircase would probably have collapsed. Luckily the magic that had been used to create it prevented this from happening and instead there was simply a gap in the stairs.

"Oh, not to worry," Wilbur said as he quickly pulled out his wand and waved it at the staircase. "I'll soon fix that for you."

"No!" Godric shouted but it was too late.

They watched as a stair materialised in the gap, with nothing giving away the fact that a moment ago it had not been there.

"I thought you said no one else could alter the structure of the building?" Rowena asked as she looked at the stairs.

"No one can," Godric replied as he walked down the stairs towards the newly created step. "Cosmetic changes like fixing broken windows can be done but not creating something from nothing."

"Well it looks like you've messed up somewhere," Helga commented as she followed Godric down the stairs. "Because that step looks pretty well created to me."

"Just because it looks it, doesn't mean it is," Godric answered as he poked towards it with his wand. But instead of hitting the wood the tip of the wand carried on through the step which vanished at its touch.

"That's never happened before." Wilbur sounded confused as he joined them. "Let me try again."

"It won't work," Godric informed him. "Only the founders can alter the structure of the school, including the staircases. Let me try."

With that Godric pulled out his wand and waved it at the now re-appeared step. Unfortunately when he tried to tap the stair again there was nothing there to hit.

"That's probably because of my spell," Wilbur muttered.

One by one all the staff attempted to bring the missing step back but to no avail.

"We can't just leave it like that," Helga pointed out after Salazar had made that suggestion. "What if some little first year falls through it?"

"I can't say I'm particularly pleased about the idea. I don't like the thought of falling through it myself!" Salazar retorted. "But what else can we do?"

That was the problem. There was nothing else they could do. The spells of the founders were being halted by Wilbur's spell and his was being thwarted by the magic that made it so only the founders could alter the building. It was an impossible situation and one that left them with a staircase with a potentially lethal missing step.

"We'll just have to make sure to warn the students," said Godric. He didn't add what everyone else was already thinking. There were so many staircases and so many that moved that there was virtually no chance of all the students remembering exactly which step was missing in the hundreds that were in the castle.

* * *

The founders sat around the table in Godric's office later that day. Jocelyn had been tended to and was now back in her library, none the worse for her encounter with the bludger and the rest of the staff were making themselves busy around the school.

The founders meanwhile were now about to face the job that they had all been putting off for some considerable time. Sorting the students into their individual houses.

They had decided to sort them prior to their arrival at the school and on the basis of their responses to the questionnaires that they had all completed as part of the admission process.

For half an hour they sorted through the applications, reading about the students who would soon be arriving at the school, and deciding which youngsters to take under their individual wings to nurture.

However it soon became apparent that one member of staff was not taking his fair share of the students, in fact he only had one application form from the main pile in front of him.

"What about this one?" Helga asked as she read the parchment in front of her. "She says she helps her parents to train wild horses…that sounds pretty brave for a twelve year old girl."

Godric nodded and took the parchment from Helga to add to the application of the manticore owning boy who, until this point, was the only child who Godric had found to be in possession of the virtue of bravery.

"Here's another one you might like to have in your house," Salazar said as he studied the next application. "Seems to be one of Rowena's distant relatives…says the bravest thing she's ever done is taste one of Rowena's fruit pies."

"It doesn't say that!" Rowena exclaimed. Salazar passed her the parchment and she saw that it did in fact say exactly that. Helga snickered; she'd tasted Rowena's fruit pies once too. Rowena passed the application to Godric who reluctantly added it to his own pile.

"This eleven year old says that he once asked Merlin for his autograph," Helga commented.

"Merlin's been dead for at least thirty years," Godric pointed out as he took the parchment from her to check she was reading it properly.

"Doesn't mean people don't keep seeing him," Salazar replied. "There've been more reported sightings since his death than there ever were when he was alive. He's been spotted everywhere from Egypt to Paris."

"Didn't you say you spotted him in Jorvik a couple of years ago?" Rowena asked Helga who blushed and suddenly busied herself with sorting through her parchments.

"If we could get back to the matter at hand," Godric asked. "Who wants the delusional little tyke in their house?"

No one volunteered until eventually Helga snatched the parchment back from Godric and placed it on her own pile.

"How about this one?" Rowena asked as she picked up the next application. "He hasn't answered the question about bravery but has listed rearing dragons under ambitions."

Godric snatched the parchment from her with enthusiasm and added it to the others in front of him.

"Perhaps it would be best to look at those who have brave ambitions instead of those who have already done something brave," Helga tactfully pointed out. "After all, most children under the age of fifteen haven't done that many brave deeds."

"By the time I was fifteen I'd already battled my first troll," Godric pointed out.

"It's not like you had much choice in the matter," Salazar chimed in. "And it's not like you'd gone looking for it either, you'd just got lost in the mountains."

"That's not the point!"

"The point, I believe, is sorting the students," Helga said firmly before they were side tracked yet again.

"Here's one for you Godric," Rowena announced with a smile. "Not only has this one heard about Quidditch, he has ambitions of making a living by playing the game. Now that's what I call bravery!"

It took several hours and a lot of swapping of students before each and every applicant was placed into one of the founders' houses.

Rowena was very happy with her handpicked selection of students. Amongst them were two students who were already inventing their own spells and one boy who had been delighted to inform the school that he was an animagus and had the ability to turn himself into a snake. She and Salazar had argued for ten minutes about which of them should have that particular student but Rowena had won out in end.

There had also been a bit of a squabble between Salazar and Godric over a student who had listed his main ambition as becoming a curse breaker and could trace his pureblood ancestry back no less than ten generations.

Helga had been a little shocked when this had been discovered and had started to reprimand Salazar for demanding to know about so many generations. She'd soon stopped though when it became apparent that Salazar had in fact only been enquiring about the parents and grandparents of the students…this particular student had got a little carried away. In the end the boy went to Godric's house purely to make up the numbers.

"Is that all of them?" Rowena asked as they each double-checked through their piles of parchment.

Helga confirmed that it was and they decided that there was no further sorting to be done this year. Godric still had fewer students than the rest of them but not so many that anyone was likely to notice, and not so many that they wanted to waste any more time on the matter.

* * *

A short while later and all the letters were ready to be sent to the students informing them of the success of their applications, the date of the start of term and everything they needed to bring with them etc.

Arms laden with letters the four founders entered the owlery and came to an abrupt halt.

"Er, how many letters do we have here?" Salazar asked. "And how many owls?"

"I'm going to deliver the letter to the manticore family personally," Godric commented helpfully.

"Well that's one less," Rowena replied. "But what about the others?"

Salazar looked around the room and soon spotted Zeus. The bird gave him and the pile of letters in his hand a baleful look before attempting to escape out the window.

It hadn't really occurred to them until right now that there were only as many owls in the school as there were teachers and staff. Less in fact as Professor Plunkett apparently didn't own one, or more likely the bird had made its own break for freedom years ago. Also they realised that Wilbur's owl was currently making a delivery in Devon about some cheap goal posts.

"I think we need more owls," Rowena said as she attached the first of her letters to the leg of Hera, her own grumpy looking owl. "And you come and find me as soon as you get back!" she called after the bird as she flew off to the south.

They enlisted the help of all the birds, some more reluctantly giving their services than others, and returned back to the main school with the dozens of letters that they still had to send.

They wondered what else they might have forgotten to take into account in their eagerness to open their school.

* * *

"There you are!" called Wilbur as they reached the Entrance Hall. "Been looking all over the place for you. I've got great news. We've just signed up the final player for the very first Quidditch team."

"Congratulations," they each dutifully replied, while privately wondering if there were really seven people in the country mad enough to take up the so-called sport.

"So when's the first match?" Godric asked.

"Well we can't have one until there's another team formed for us to play," Wilbur pointed out. "And that's something else I've been thinking about. How about we have a Quidditch team for each of your houses and matches between the students throughout the year. Make a bit of a tournament of it, eh?"

"Er…" Helga seemed at rather a loss for words.

"We already have plans for some inter-house competitions," Rowena explained as she pointed to the four hour glasses lining the far wall. "The students will get house points for hard work and determination."

"And lose points for rule breaking and misbehaviour," Salazar added.

"I've been meaning to ask about those," Wilbur asked. "Why are they filled with different colour feathers?"

"So we can tell which glass is for which house," replied Salazar in a tone that one might use with a dim-witted child.

"But why feathers?" Wilbur clarified. "You should put something like jewels in there, rubies and emeralds…is something wrong?"

Rowena's jaw dropped while Salazar shook his head in disbelief.

"You can always bewitch the hour glasses so that no one can access them," Wilbur pointed out.

"They're already bewitched so no one can tamper with them," Helga confirmed. "It's not so much the worry that the students might want to steal the gems you suggest that we use…it's more the fact that the cost of filling those with jewels would break us."

"But you can't have spent that much money," Wilbur said with a frown. "I've never known anyone like you for haggling for the cheapest deal."

Helga smiled at the compliment whilst Rowena and Salazar turned to look at Godric, who was suddenly finding a loose thread on his robes to be extremely interesting.

"Ah!" Wilbur said, understanding immediately. "Maybe in a year or two we can upgrade to gems?"

"Perhaps," agreed Rowena with a hesitant nod. "We have some other purchases to make before that though that are of much higher priority, starting with more owls for the school correspondence."

"I see," Wilbur said as he pulled out a parchment and handed it to her. "Although I may just have the answer for that. Look at this for a great deal…ten snidgets for a galleon. I'm going to buy in bulk for the school Quidditch matches but there's no reason we can't see about training them to deliver some letters as well. At least until you get your new owls."

The founders shrugged in compliance. If they wanted to make sure the students arrived in September they didn't have a great deal of choice. They just hoped the birds were bigger in reality than they were on paper. If they wanted the school to open on schedule the most important thing wasn't getting the books, staff and Quidditch items, but getting the students themselves.


	11. The Arrival of the Masses

**Chapter 11 – The Arrival of the Masses**

"Quick, hide it!" Salazar ordered as Rowena hurriedly shifted her position so that her robes covered the box between their feet.

Displaying as innocent a face as possible she turned to smile at Helga as she navigated her way up the stands towards them.

"I've been looking all over for you Rowena," she said as she took a seat beside her. "I didn't think you had any interest in Quidditch?"

"I can't say I do," Rowena replied. "But why miss an opportunity to watch Godric and Wilbur make complete twits of themselves?" She pointed a hand towards the pitch where Godric and Wilbur were hovering on brooms as they attempted to get the newly arrived goal posts into the correct positions.

"Are they supposed to be at different heights?" Helga asked as she frowned in confusion. "And do they really need three of them?"

"Six." Salazar pointed out the other three still lying flat on the ground at the far end of the pitch.

"But they've been out here for four hours!" Helga exclaimed.

"I know," said Salazar, sounding rather disappointed. "I wish they'd take a break for lunch, I'm starving."

"So go and get something to eat." Helga rolled her eyes, shook her head and sighed.

"We can't leave until _they_ do," Rowena said, nodding towards the men on brooms. "We're counting how many times Godric falls from his broom. I've bet five sickles on him falling more than a dozen times. Salazar's bet the same that he falls more than twenty."

"You're _actually_ betting on…" Helga's voice trailed off and she shook her head again. Suddenly Rowena and Salazar leaned forward in eager anticipation. Helga turned to look back towards the goal posts and saw that Godric was hanging by one arm from his broom.

"That's eight," Rowena said as she scored a mark on the parchment resting in her lap.

"Nine," Salazar said as he pointed to Godric with a roar of laughter. "Look he's gone again!"

Helga felt the twitch of a smile starting to escape as they watched Godric struggle back onto his broom again. "So is it too late for me to have a little wager?" she asked.

* * *

Godric had just slipped from his broom for the sixteenth time – much to the delight of Helga who had bet him falling more than fifteen times – when they finally decided to return to the ground.

"You could have come to help us, you know!" Wilbur suggested as they joined the others in the stands.

"Not ruddy likely," Salazar retorted with a noticeable shudder.

"Anyway," Helga interrupted. "Since you're down on the ground now I needed a word with you Godric, and you too Rowena, about the passwords to your quarters."

"I've set mine up already," Rowena replied. "I decided that my students will answer questions in order to gain access, it'll help the learning process."

"Mine's set up as well," Godric confirmed. "Did it yesterday morning. It's all sorted and the doorway is hidden behind one of the new paintings."

"Yes, I noticed that, there's just one problem. The painting is of a lion." Helga waited for a moment as Godric stood there looking confused. "A normal regular old lion basking in the hot son."

"So? What's wrong with that. The Gryffindor crest has always had a lion on it?"

"So the lion can't talk to ask for the password, nor can it understand when the password is given. I tested it this morning and the animal just sat there looking at me before it wandered off out of the picture and into that painting of a tavern scene where the roast deer was hanging over the fireplace."

"Well the old lion probably knew you weren't in Gryffindor and that was why it refused you entry."

"Rubbish!" Helga snorted. "All staff need to be able to access _all_ the quarters in case of an emergency. Just go switch the painting for one of those with a spark of human intelligence before the students arrive."

Godric grumbled a little but confirmed he'd do so whilst Rowena and Salazar snickered.

"And I don't know what you're laughing about." Helga rounded on Rowena with a stern glare. "I don't mind the passwords being questions, it's a good idea though I still say that you run the risk of some of the more intelligent students from other houses sneaking in there. But the questions need to be ones the students can answer. I doubt any one of them will know when your birthday is."

"Oh I'll tell them when it is on their first day," Rowena confirmed with a nod. "Then by the time it comes round in October they'll all know."

"You're using the password to Ravenclaw Tower to remind the students of your birthday?" Salazar asked with a laugh. "Wish I'd thought of that."

"Don't you encourage her," Helga reprimanded him. "I still don't trust that you won't one day change your password to something that needs to be spoken in parseltongue."

"Oooh, I never thought of that," Salazar teased.

"Hey, is that Zeus?" Rowena said, shielding her eyes from the sun as she tried to recognise the owl that was heading towards them. Zeus like the rest of the owls had been making frequent flights around the country as they prepared for the imminent opening of the school. His latest trip had been to an apothecary in France in order to enquire about some of the rarer potions ingredients.

"Looks like it," Salazar replied. "Here let me have a bit of that parchment." He didn't wait for her response as he tore off a piece of parchment and snatched the quill from her hand.

"What are you doing?" Rowena asked as he scribbled a short note onto the parchment and attached it to Zeus's leg.

"Ordering lunch," Salazar replied.

"You can't do that!" Helga exclaimed. "It's hardly a great effort to walk inside to eat."

"Too late, it's already gone," Salazar replied. "Besides, the sooner we eat, the sooner Godric and Wilbur can get back to entertaining us."

"Don't you have anything better to do with your time?" Godric asked. "It's hardly what I'd call exciting to watch a couple of men erecting some goal posts."

"Oh I wouldn't say that," Salazar smirked. "You don't give yourself enough credit."

Godric frowned in confusion, clearly missing the joke, as Salazar and the women half-heartedly tried to restrain their giggles.

The jolly atmosphere continued throughout lunch – delivered by a grovelling and bowing house elf by the name of Clover – and soon Godric and Wilbur were back on their brooms.

"Do you think it's wise to be flying quite so soon after eating?" Helga asked, whilst the others watched in amusement as Godric turned an unflattering shade of green.

"It's not like we're soaring about at high speeds," Wilbur pointed out. "Just hovering around the goal posts while we put them into place. We just can't seem to get them all level."

"Leave them as they are," Rowena suggested. "It's not like anyone's going to notice. Say you did it on purpose."

"Besides," Helga added. "With the time it's taken you so far you'll still be trying to get them level when the students arrive."

"You know, it might be more interesting to have them at different levels," Godric suggested "More of a challenge for your keepers."

Wilbur shrugged before finally agreeing and they set off towards the far end of the pitch to start on the final three goal posts.

Thirty minutes later Salazar let out a whoop as Godric tumbled from his broom for the twenty first time, winning him the wager.

A few minutes later Godric was back on his broom and Salazar discreetly nudged Rowena in the side.

Cautious of Helga at the other side of her she shook her head slightly. Salazar raised an eyebrow and discreetly nodded back. Rowena shook her head, more forcefully this time.

Unfortunately whilst Salazar was perfectly adept at subtlety and sneakiness, Rowena was about as discreet as stripper at a school feast.

"For crying out loud," Helga finally exclaimed. "If you two want to slip off somewhere, for goodness sake go and cease the poor attempts at discretion."

"One track mind much," snorted Salazar.

"Then what _are_ you two messing about at?" Helga asked. Rowena's eyes flickered guiltily down to the wooden floor and Helga caught sight of the metal container partially hidden by her robes. "That isn't what I think it is, is it?" she asked suspicion heavy in her voice as she glared at the guilty parties.

"Well Wilbur did say he wanted to make sure they were thoroughly tested before we opened," Salazar pointed out. He pulled the box containing the two bludgers up onto his lap. It seemed to strain and struggle in his grasp, the contents eager to escape and wreak havoc. "We thought we'd help them out."

"You can't just release those things here, they're flying about on brooms, they're not ready for them! What if they get knocked off their brooms?"

"I rather thought that was the whole point of them," Rowena replied. "Besides we've got a healer now so they should be all right."

"That's a matter of opinion," Helga retorted. "How much use do you think a healer who faints at the sight of blood is going to _be_ exactly?"

"She just needs a bit of time to get used to things." Rowena had been telling herself this ever since she'd seen Madam Gudgeon pass out stone cold after Augustus had gone to see her with a nasty gash down his arm following a minor accident in the stables. Unfortunately it didn't sound any more believable when said aloud than it did in her head.

"Where did you find her anyway?" Helga asked Salazar, who looked as though he was about to release the bludgers any moment.

"She's a friend of my mother," he replied. "She recently lost her husband and his estate has gone to his younger brother. She needed somewhere to live and an income. She's a perfectly capable witch."

"Except for the fact that she faints at the sight of blood," Helga pointed out again.

"She just needs a bit of practice," Salazar suggested with a wicked grin. "I think we should give her some."

And with that he opened the box containing the bludgers and watched as they soared through to air to where Godric and Wilbur were trying to ascertain whether the last of the goal posts was correctly placed.

"You raving lunatic," Godric screamed as he flew past the stands at speed, a bludger hot on his tail.

Salazar roared with laughter and Rowena fell off the bench as she clutched at her sides. Even Helga was fighting back giggles as the two bludgers chased the two berks round and round the pitch.

* * *

"Whose idea was it for the students to travel here by boat?" Helga asked as the four founders hurried down towards the lake in the early evening light of the first day of September.

"I thought it'd be a nice view for them," Rowena said. "The castle looks all romantic in the moonlight."

"I don't think they're really appreciating that right now," Helga replied as a third boat capsized in the water.

"Well how was I to know they'd try to bring the horses by row boat?" Rowena snapped. "It's hardly practical."

They reached the side of the lake as the first of the horses made its way onto dry land.

"I've lost Herbert!" a young boy wailed as he struggled to climb back into one of the boats, capsizing it again in the process.

A yowl sounded amidst the screams of the children as Rowena accidentally trod on the tail of a cat that had just reached the shore.

"Stupid animal," she muttered. "Why isn't it in a basket or something?"

"Pye's not stupid," an offended young girl replied as she clambered out of the first boat to arrive. She glared at Rowena who silently hoped that the girl wasn't one that she'd sorted into her own house.

"This way!" Godric called to Augustus who hopped out of the same boat as Pye's owner.

"I can't find Herbert!" the drenched boy yelled as the boat he'd now managed to climb into continued to make its way towards land.

"Is Herbert a student?" Salazar asked Helga, the only one of them who seemed to be able to remember the names of each and every one of the children who'd applied to the school.

"I don't think so," replied Helga after a moment of consideration.

"Well whoever it is, I hope he finds him soon, because he's giving me a headache with all that yelling," Rowena muttered.

"Miss!" Rowena turned around and looked down to see a young boy tugging frantically at her robes. She was just wondering if the child was even eleven years old when the reason he wanted her attention became apparent and he vomited all over her shoes.

"Aaaargh!" a scream of terror came from one of the boats that was still making its way across the lake.

Rowena passed the sick boy off to Helga as she waded into the lake to see what the problem was.

A girl was standing up on one of the seats of the boat, screaming at the top of her lungs. Rowena watched as she tumbled back off the bow of the boat and into the lake.

She pushed her way through the water and grabbed the girl as she came spluttering to the surface. "A snake," the girl cried, still half hysterical. "There's a snake in the boat."

Rowena groaned quietly as they made their way back to the shore. Since no one had asked to bring a pet snake to the school it sounded as though one of her students already needed to be disciplined. She wondered what the chances were of palming the brat off to Salazar after all.

* * *

It was nearly another hour before everyone had made their way up to the castle.

Herbert, who turned out to be the pet toad of Reginald Williams, was found and reunited with his owner. All those students who had suffered a dunking in the lake were dried off and Rowena had handed out her first detention of the term to the snake boy who she could already see was going to be a troublemaker.

The seats at the four long banquet tables of the Great Hall were now filled for the very first time with students eager to learn all they could about the world of magic.

Rowena looked with pride at the Ravenclaw table and turned to Helga who was looking equally pleased as she gazed at her own students.

"It all starts here…today, doesn't it?" Helga whispered.

"There's no turning back now," Rowena whispered back with an excited nod.

Helga looked like she was going to say something else but Godric had turned to glare at them from his place at the podium where he was making his speech. A few students snickered as they picked up on the interactions between the three teachers. Rowena sat up primly in her seat and tried to look attentive. She wasn't very successful, she suspected the water weeds still in her hair might have been somewhat detrimental to the appearance she wanted to give.

Still, at least she was paying marginally more attention than Salazar who may actually have fallen asleep.

Finally Godric finished his speech and the feast began. The two cooks and the house elves they'd brought with them had outdone themselves for the first meal of the term. Helga murmured to Rowena that she hoped they hadn't spent the entire food budget on this one banquet.

The chatter of the students filled the room and brought smiles to the faces of all the staff.

"They can certainly put away their food, can't they?" Salazar whispered with a not quite hidden grin towards the students. The main course dishes vanished below to the kitchen and the dessert trays appeared in their place. The occupants of the four tables dove in with relish.

It was nearly midnight by the time all the students were safely delivered to their quarters for the night.

Rowena walked into the Entrance Hall with a satisfied smile on her face. Godric and Helga were looking at the hourglasses intently and she went across to see what they were looking at.

"Looks like someone's got a little carried away awarding house points," Godric said as he pointed to the Slytherin hourglass. Sure enough that one, unlike the others which were still unchanged, had a fair number of green feathers in the bottom half.

"He's really determined to win this, isn't he?" Helga smiled and shook her head at the juvenility of the whole thing.

"Are my ears burning?" Salazar asked as he came up from the dungeons.

"Just don't get too complacent," Godric advised. "We've plenty of time to catch up before the end of the year. The Gryffindor students seem a bright bunch. We'll soon catch up."

"You may catch up, but the Ravenclaws will beat you both," Rowena warned.

"We'll see, we'll see," said Salazar in a highly disbelieving tone. "Now about that other problem. Rowena what did you come up with to get around Godric's worries about any night time emergency?"

"Celibacy," Rowena replied with a rueful grin. She gave him a quick peck on the cheek before turning towards her own quarters.

"That's not a solution!" Salazar called after her.

The last thing she heard before the voices faded from her hearing was the sound of Salazar asking Godric if he _really_ needed anyone to teach History of Magic and Potions or whether the school might manage without those particular subjects.


	12. The Moulding of Young Minds

**Chapter 12 – The Moulding of Young Minds**

Rowena stumbled into the Great Hall the following morning. She was half asleep and from the look of things so were most of the students and several of the staff.

Helga was yawning widely and Salazar looked positively grumpy. None of them could be described as a morning person by any stretch of the imagination. Though Rowena suspected that in Helga's case it was probably more likely she'd been up all night preparing lesson plans and simply lost track of time.

"Whose idea was it that we start classes so early in the morning?" she asked with a yawn of her own as she took her seat between Salazar and Godric.

"This isn't early," Godric replied with a bright smile. "I've been up for three hours already."

"Bully for you," Rowena muttered with another yawn.

Rowena was half-heartedly toying with her bacon, whilst wondering if she could squeeze a nap into her timetable when the morning post arrived. There was nothing like the appearance in the room of several dozen screeching owls in flight to wake a person up.

A large long-eared owl swooped towards her and she ducked to let it pass her by. It landed on Salazar's plate with a thump.

"Anything interesting?" she asked a moment later after he'd read the letter.

"Mother says good luck on my first day and to behave myself." Salazar rolled his eyes and passed her the letter. "It sounds like she thinks I'm one of the students."

Rowena snickered as she tried to wrestle the last of her bacon back from the owl that had decided to commandeer it as its own. She eventually gave it up as a bad job and the smug bird wolfed down the rind with relish.

"So what else is in the letter?" she asked. "You're frowning so there must be something you've not mentioned," she added when Salazar remained silent.

"The usual," he finally muttered. "Father sends his regards, reminds me of the large portion of the family fortune that's been invested in the school, and wants to know why I'm not married yet. He's also _helpfully_ provided a list of all the relatives of our students whom he considers suitable candidates."

Rowena swore under her breath.

Salazar reached for his cup of mead, took a long swallow and immediately spat it all back out as he choked. "What _is_ this revolting muck?" he spluttered.

"Ah," Godric turned to them with a smile. "I see you've just discovered the delightful taste of pumpkin juice."

"What?" Rowena asked. "Where's the mead?"

"Well," Godric began. "I thought perhaps drinking alcohol before teaching the students might be a little…er…inappropriate."

"Don't be ridiculous," Salazar cut in as he wiped down the table. "Most of these children will have been brought up on mead and ale. Not this muck!"

"Well I'm not going to question how they're raised at home," Godric continued. "But here at Hogwarts they're not going to be finding any alcohol. And the faculty will only partake of wine with the evening meal, and then in strict moderation."

"It isn't very nice," Helga commented from the other side of Godric after she'd taken a hesitant sip from her own cup. "Are you sure there isn't another alternative?"

"Nothing wrong with pumpkin juice," Godric said. "Great stuff! Guaranteed to put hairs on your chest. My mum used to swear by it. Drank nothing else."

"Didn't your mother die of suspected food poisoning?" Rowena reminded him as she quickly put her cup back down and pushed it away. Even the Slytherin owl was giving the juice a wide berth.

"That's entirely beside the point!" Godric scoffed as he took a healthy swig from his own cup.

* * *

Most of the students were still eating when Godric summoned all the staff into the antechamber off of the Great Hall.

"So do we all know what we're doing today?" he asked as he looked around the room. "Er…Wait a minute! Where's Professor Plunkett?"

Everyone shrugged and looked around the room, perhaps hoping she might suddenly be found to be hiding underneath one of the chairs or something.

"I've not got my first class until this afternoon," Helga said. "I'll go check she's all right and introduce her to her first students."

Godric nodded in thanks. "And everyone else knows what they're doing today?"

"My first class is afternoon lunch too," Salazar said with a smirk. "Rowena what's on your timetable today?"

"Transfiguration with the fourth years first and then Ancient Runes with the first years after that."

"Excellent," Godric beamed about the room. Several people backed up slightly at his enthusiasm. "I have the first years for Care of Magical Creatures first so I'll bring them to you as soon as we're done at the lake."

"The lake?" asked Helga warily. "Don't you think they saw enough of the water yesterday?"

"There's all sorts of fascinating creatures in the depths of that lake. Why last month I caught more than half a dozen grindylows."

"Yes, that's all well and good, but weren't you supposed to be catching fish at the time?" Salazar smirked as Godric floundered about for an excuse.

"I really don't think that grindylows are suitable for the first years to study," Helga pointed out cautiously. "Some of them can get quite nasty."

"What the first years?" Godric asked.

"The grindylows!" Helga clarified, not entirely sure if Godric was joking or really being that dense.

"I've got it all under control," Godric assured her. "I wasn't planning on teaching them about the grindylows yet anyway. There's a giant squid in the lake too and I thought we'd make it a class project to find it tame it. We could have the first tame giant squid in the country."

Helga put her head into her hands and muttered something unintelligible. Rowena meanwhile took the opportunity to duck out the door and make her way to the Transfiguration classroom. She wished she'd known about the residents of the lake earlier, having been swimming in the waters on numerous occasions throughout the summer.

* * *

Rowena looked at the fourth years as they stood waiting outside the door to the Transfiguration classroom. A few of them looked like they'd been standing there a while. She tried to look authoritative as she swept past them. She was only a few minutes late and how was she to know that the students had a better sense of direction than she'd given them credit for?

She opened the door with a tap of her wand. One of the Ravenclaw boys accidentally trod on her foot as he ducked ahead of her to hold the door open for her with a smile that would best be described as fawning.

"Thank you," she murmured as she limped by him, adding as an afterthought, "five points to Ravenclaw for showing good manners." She'd catch up with Salazar in the points game by lunchtime at this rate.

Once the class had taken their seats Rowena began the lecture she'd been preparing for the last two weeks.

She'd decided that because the students were coming from all walks of life it was going to be easier to start each class with a short test of the abilities of each student, just to ascertain where they were at magically.

She'd gathered various items for the students to transfigure and intended to go through them one by one during the course of the first lesson.

"Are there any questions?" she asked after she'd explained the lesson plan to the students.

She looked around the room and saw that half the students seemed to be whispering amongst themselves, two were doodling on their parchment and one of them was picking his nose. She wondered how she could enthuse in them some modicum of excitement for the subject she was so looking forward to teaching.

It was then that she spotted a raised hand in the third row.

"You have a question…er…?" she flushed slightly as she realised that not only had she forgotten the girl's name, she was one of her own Ravenclaw students as well.

"Rosalyn, Professor," the girl replied.

Rowena nodded and smiled gratefully. "And what is it about the lesson that you don't understand?"

"Well it's not that," Rosalyn said with a nervous glance at the girl sitting beside her who seemed to be on the verge of giggles for some unknown reason. "Erm…it's…er…"

"Don't be nervous," Rowena assured her, giving her a dazzling smile that she hoped would calm her down. "Just ask your question and I'll do my best to answer."

Roselyn nodded before continuing in a rush. "Well Professor, Eliza Flutterbug told me that Mary Pickles had told her, that she'd overheard Barney Cutts telling the Dingle twins that Betsy Totterton had told him that she'd heard from Rufus Richards that Clare North – that's Clare in the second year with the curly red hair, not Clare in the first year with the ponytail – that she'd told him that Isolde Harbutt had said she'd seen you and Professor Slytherin holding hands under the table at the feast last night."

The class drew in their collective breath and turned to look at Rowena with rapt attention. She experienced for a moment that rare feeling of pleasure as every student in the room gave her their undivided attention. Not one student was doodling, not one student was whispering, no one was doing anything except look directly at Rowena.

"I'm sorry, was there a question in there?" she finally asked, having somewhat lost the train of the girl's babble around the point of the Dingle twins, whoever the heck they were.

* * *

Rowena may have felt marginally better about the way her own lesson was going had she known the problems Helga was suffering around this same time.

Helga, who should have been enjoying a relaxing morning was instead standing at the door of the Divination room with a crowd of students behind her waiting for Professor Plunkett to let them into her sanctuary.

"Professor Plunkett, I have your first students here for their Divination class!" she called through the closed doorway, much to the amusement of the students gathered behind her.

"Maybe we should ram it," one of the boys suggested.

It said something about Helga's frustration at this point that she actually seriously considered his suggestion for several minutes.

* * *

"You see before you the Great Lake," Godric said to the cluster of first year students standing in front of him.

"It's not that great," one girl said, thoroughly unimpressed with the view.

"Lake Windermere's way bigger," her friend agreed.

"Well, there are a lot of big lakes out there," agreed Godric. He was rather anxious not to get too side tracked in the first of his lessons. "However I think you'll find that this particular lake has a lot more to offer than Lake Windermere."

"Does it have the Loch Ness Monster in it?" one boy piped up eagerly as he peered into the waters from a rather precarious position on the edge of the shore.

"Er, no, that would be in Loch Ness," Godric said with a frown.

"My mum says that the Loch Ness Monster is made up to frighten naughty children," one girl chimed in knowingly. Several of the others nodded in agreement.

"Actually the Loch Ness Monster is a Kelpie and we'll be learning all about them in a couple of years time," Godric announced.

"Are you sure?" the girl with the knowledgeable mother asked. "Because my mum says that all the reports about the Loch Ness Monster are made by men who are on their way home from the taverns."

"My dad said he saw Nessie once," another student said. "He wanted to stay and study it."

"Was he on his way home from a tavern?"

"No! He'd gone to see a man about getting another manticore as ours gets a bit lonely."

"You have a manticore?" another boy asked in awe. "Wow! They're really rare and really dangerous."

"You dad sounds weird!"

"He is not, he's the biggest expert on magical creatures in the world!"

"Ahem," Godric interjected as wands were drawn. Everyone ignored him.

* * *

Salazar was just checking that Madam Gudgeon was fully stocked with healing potions when the first casualty of the term was brought in.

It was probably a lucky coincidence he was there at the time. He dealt adeptly with the boy with a broken nose whilst idly listening as the boy explained that his father wasn't a drunk who saw all sorts of oddities after a night down the tavern.

After sending the student back to his class Salazar turned his attention to the unconscious Madam Gudgeon. He finally decided against leaving her on the floor and levitated her onto one of the beds before returning to his chambers to finalise his plans for the afternoon's Potions class.


	13. Potions and Prowling

**Chapter 13 – Potions and Prowling**

Salazar looked about the Potions classroom where the fourth year students were now gathered for their first lesson with him. They didn't look particularly attentive and there were several students who appeared to be finishing off their lunch. That was one of the problems with Potions. With so much equipment on the desks it was easy to hide all manner of illicit materials behind the cauldrons. Everything from homework for other classes to half eaten pasties could be safely hidden away from the eyes of the teachers. He made a mental note to keep wandering around the desks during the lesson to see what else they had hidden out of sight.

"During the course of the year you will be brewing a wide variety of potions under my tutelage. We will be concentrating this year on learning how to make a number of potions that are used in every day life…potions for cleaning and healing for example. After you've mastered those we will turn to the more unusual and far more complicated potions."

One of the students raised his hand. Salazar sighed, surely not a question already? He waved a hand to indicate the boy to ask whatever it was that was on his mind.

"My dad says standing over a hot cauldron is women's work," the boy said. "So why do the boys have to take this class?"

"Because not all boys will be able to find a wife to do their work for them," Salazar retorted, wondering if the boy had even noticed the glares being directed at him from the female members of the class.

"Will we be learning how to make potato stew?" another voice called out.

"Huh? Who asked that?" Salazar looked about the room for the person who'd spoken. Another hand was raised. "No, we will not be learning how to make stew of any kind. This is a _Potions_ class."

A few small groans were heard and Salazar frowned. "Is there anyone else here who is labouring under the misapprehension that I will be tutoring you in culinary skills?"

The class was silent; not a single hand was raised. Salazar was about to continue with the lesson when he realised that there were a lot of confused faces looking in his direction. "Does anyone else think I'm teaching cooking?" he amended. Eight hands shot into the air.

"Well remove that thought for your minds right now or go and join the house elves in the kitchens. I'm sure they'll be happy to oblige you with some lessons."

No one got up from their seats. It was a pity really as the class was rather large and he had a sneaking suspicion he was short on ingredients for the potion he wished them to make today.

"My dad still says that this is women's work," the boy who'd spoken initially grumbled.

"Your father probably only says that because he's no good at it," Salazar retorted. A few members of the class snickered.

"My father's a great wizard," the boy argued. "He once defeated Merlin in a duel." Several members of the class gasped in awe at this revelation.

"I think you'll find that once he'd imbibed a jug of ale most of your grandmothers could have beaten Merlin in a duel," Salazar informed the class before continuing with the lesson.

"Today we will be brewing sleeping draughts. Yes, what is it now?" Salazar turned impatiently to the girl Rowena had pointed out at lunchtime as being Rosalyn.

"I already know how to make that, can I make something different instead?" asked Rosalyn in a thoroughly bored tone.

"No," Salazar snapped. "If you already know how to make it, I shall expect you to produce a perfect potion and gain full marks in this class. I'm not having everyone working on different potions and confusing me…I mean confusing the rest of the class."

After ten minutes of questions and the giving out of further instructions the class was finally under way. He was pleased to see that Rosalyn did indeed know how to make the sleeping draught, although the boy who thought it was women's work appeared to be struggling.

The lesson was half way through when he heard the sound of a quiet knock on the door.

"Come in," he called from where he was looking into a cauldron that was starting to melt in order to see what had gone wrong. He made a mental note to suggest to Godric that next year the students provide their own equipment rather than the school.

"Er, Professor Slytherin, Sir…" the second year girl stood hovering in the doorway. He couldn't really blame her. The fumes in that part of the room were particularly noxious.

"Yes, what is it?" Salazar asked as he made his way between the desks.

"Er, it's Professor Hufflepuff," she replied. "She's not turned up for our lesson."

"Didn't your lesson start half an hour ago?" Salazar asked.

"It should have done."

"And you've waited until now to come and find another teacher?"

"Well I had to sneak out of the room to find one," the girl replied. Salazar spotted a small tear in the sleeve of her robes and her hair was slightly dishevelled. It seemed like the Charms lesson was not going according to Helga's plan at all.

He was hesitant to leave his own students but if something was seriously wrong then he had no choice. He looked about the room for a student who looked like they might take charge and act responsibly if left alone. After a minute, and when the girl from Charms had started tugging impatiently on his sleeve, he gave up and merely told them to continue working until he returned.

He frowned as he made his way down the corridor. His class had their instructions, all they had to do was read them and follow them…what could possibly go wrong?

He remembered the melted cauldron and the noxious fumes and quickened his pace.

Helga was, as he'd expected, nowhere in sight in the Charms classroom. Nor was she in her office, the staff room or any of the other likely places.

It was some time before he eventually tracked her down outside the door to the Divination classroom.

"You do realise you're supposed to be teaching second year Charms," he said as he approached. "One of your students popped into my class to tell me you hadn't turned up."

"Is that the time already?" Helga asked. "I've been here all morning trying to get Professor Plunkett to open her door. I sent her class to the library hours ago. I hope they're not still there."

"I doubt it. Jocelyn will have sent them to lunch if they didn't go themselves when they noticed the time. Are you sure Plunkett is even in there?"

"Yes, I heard her moving around about an hour ago. I think she's barricaded the door with furniture and spells."

"Perhaps you should leave her there for the moment," Salazar suggested. "Your second years are apparently rioting and I shudder to think what sort of a state my class will be in when I return."

Helga nodded and left the Divination Professor to her own devices. It wasn't like she had any other choice.

* * *

"I hereby call this emergency staff meeting to order," Godric said as he hammered on the table. Rowena woke up with a start. She didn't know what had possessed Godric to call a staff meeting at seven o'clock in the morning but she sincerely hoped that it would be the last one of its kind.

"The matter at hand," he continued, "is Professor Plunkett. As you are all aware, she has barricaded herself in her tower and seems to have forgotten that she's supposed to be teaching the students Divination at all."

He turned to glare somewhat at Helga who looked rather harassed as she chewed on the end of her quill.

"Now while we could all cover her lessons for her, I think we are all agreed that we don't really know enough about the subject to ensure our students are proficient in it." He nodded to the group in acknowledgement of their efforts.

Rowena wondered how the others had handled the lessons that they'd been forced to take over for the last two weeks. She had confined the classes to the reading of tea leaves and had managed to waste most of the time brewing the tea.

"Let's face it," Salazar interrupted. "None of us know squat about Divination and nor would we care to. Can't we just scrap the subject now and have done with it?"

"Well that might solve the problem of the lessons," Godric agreed. "But it won't help with getting Professor Plunkett out of the tower."

"Leave the old loon up there," Salazar suggested with a shrug. "It's not like anyone else is clamouring for the quarters."

"We can't just leave her up there," said Helga. "She's our responsibility."

"_You_ hired her, I think that makes her _your_ responsibility," Salazar retorted. "But really, how difficult can it be to get the old bat out of the tower. We're wizards and witches, there's got to be something we can do."

"I don't see you putting forward any suggestions," Helga pointed out. "At least no _useful_ suggestions."

"Well if we all put our minds together, I'm sure we'll come up with something," said Godric hopefully. He beamed around the table. Everyone ducked their heads to avoid his gaze.

The minutes dragged by in silence.

"While we're all here," Salazar finally said. "I've been thinking of a few other things we might like to discuss."

"Yes?" Godric said warily.

"Well firstly there's the issue of expenses. The school has already run through a dozen cauldrons and I think we should consider asking the students to provide their own."

"That couldn't be avoided by having a more proficient teacher?" Ryan Lynch piped up. He'd made it clear that he wanted to teach Potions right from the start and took every opportunity to make sure that Godric was reminded of the fact.

"No it couldn't!" Salazar snapped.

"We'll look into it for next year," suggested Godric, eager to bring the meeting back to the problem at hand.

"There's another matter I wanted to bring up too," Salazar said.

"Yes?" Godric sounded even more wary this time.

"The weekends seem to be a bit problematic," Salazar continued. "All these students running around with too much spare time on their hands. More than half the injuries and accidents dealt with by Madam Gudgeon are occurring during the weekends and I think we might want to consider sending students home on Friday nights to return on Sunday."

Godric frowned. "That seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to. A lot of the students have to travel hundreds of miles to get here and their parents are paying for them to stay here throughout the term."

"I really don't think it's a particularly good idea," Helga agreed. "It'd be far easier to have them stay here and keep a closer eye on what they're up to. Don't you agree Rowena?"

Rowena opened her mouth to confirm her agreement when she felt the slight pressure on her foot. She looked at Salazar who raised his eyebrow meaningfully.

"Ah," Godric said with a knowing smirk. He rummaged about in his papers for a moment before pulling out a sheet of parchment. "Ah, here it is," he finally said as he read down the paper. "You indicated that the staff sleeping arrangements were not a priority for staff meetings. I have taken the time to consider what you said at the last meeting and find myself to be in total agreement on that point."

Helga snickered and whispered "score one to Godric" loudly.

Salazar swore under his breath. "So how about we fit an extra holiday or two into each term. Say one at the start of October and then another in November…"

"No!" Godric said as he hammered on the table once more. "Can we get back to the matter at hand please?"

"What matter's that?" asked a voice from the end of the table. "I'm quite enjoying this debate!"

Everyone turned in shock to see that Professor Plunkett had descended from her tower and was sitting attentively at the end of the table as though she'd always been there.

"Sorry I'm late," she said. "No one told me about the meeting. Just found out about it from Sal a few minutes ago."

Rowena looked at Salazar who looked as confused as everyone else.

"She's a good girl, is Sal," Professor Plunkett continued. "Aren't you girl?"

Everyone leaned forward to see what she was doing as Daisy leaned down to her left.

"Would someone please get that ruddy goat out of the staff room, at once!" Godric ordered as he hammered once more on the table.

"I told you you'd dent the table if you kept doing that," Helga pointed out with a sigh as Godric finally succeeded in breaking his hammer and wearing a groove in the table.

* * *

Rowena crept from her quarters as quietly as she could. She felt like an intruder in her own castle as she tiptoed down the stairs.

The sound of whispered voices below startled her and she hid behind a suit of armour. She wondered who was wandering about the castle in the middle of the night, at least besides her.

The voices drew nearer, revealing themselves to belong to a couple of third year girls who were staggering under the weight of piles of pastries and cakes.

"What's going on here?" Rowena asked as she stepped out in front of the students. One of them let out a small scream whilst the other, just as startled, dropped a couple of pastries.

"Midnight feast," the second girl finally said. "The house elves said to come by any time we wanted a snack."

"They did, did they?" Rowena asked. "Perhaps you didn't hear what Professor Gryffindor said on the first day of term though, about staying in your quarters after lights out."

The girls looked at each other guiltily.

"I really should give you a detention for this," Rowena said. "But if you go right back to Ravenclaw Tower now, I'll overlook it just this once."

"But we're in Gryffindor, Professor," the first girl said.

"Oh." Six weeks into term and Rowena was still unsure as to which students belonged to which house when they weren't in their school robes. "Well come along, let's get you back to Gryffindor Tower." She pointed the way and the girls dutifully followed her direction.

"You're not going to tell Professor Gryffindor, are you?" the girls asked once they'd reached the portrait that was guarding the entrance to the tower.

"Well I don't know," Rowena mused, despite the fact that she had no intention of doing so. The last thing she wanted was to have to explain to Godric what _she_ was doing wandering the school at midnight.

"Oh, please Professor," the girls begged.

"Very well," Rowena said. "But I'll have to deduct house points from you both. Ten points from each of you for breaking the rules."

The girls looked so relieved at not having to face Godric they didn't seem to register the loss of the house points.

Rowena saw them safely into the tower before turning back and continuing on her way.

A minute later she was hiding in an empty classroom as Wilbur's Astronomy students filed along the corridor for their midnight class.

"I don't see why we have to study this subject so late at night," one boy complained.

"Because the stars only come out at night, stupid!"

"But what's the point of studying them at all?"

"I want to go back to bed!"

"Quit complaining you two, it's not our fault the staff insist on teaching such pointless subjects. If you have to complain then write to your parents."

"My dad said to quit complaining."

The voices of the dawdling students finally quietened and Rowena emerged from the classroom and hurried down the corridor again.

The sound of giggling from the library caught her ear and she stopped again. More students out of bed?

She cautiously opened the door, hoping to see some more students whom she could deduct some house points from. Godric and Salazar had both got carried away with awarding points and it was actually becoming quite an effort to keep up with them.

"Professor Ravenclaw," Augustus said as he jumped up from his seat. What looked like a book of poetry fell to the floor and a blushing Jocelyn hurried to hide it.

"Erm…carry on…er…right…um…" Rowena backed out the door.

Wondering how that little development had managed to slip past her she hurried on her way.

The next interruption on her journey turned out to be a couple of fighting cats in the Charms classroom. She managed to separate them without too much trouble, getting only a few scratches on her arm for her efforts.

She'd just reached the Entrance Hall when she heard the sound of more giggling students, this time coming from the corridor leading to the kitchen.

She slipped quietly down the stairs, catching sight of the wandering students disappearing into the kitchen. She followed immediately behind them.

"Aren't we feeding you enough here?" she asked as she entered the kitchen. One of the boys dropped the food he'd picked up from the apparent buffet on the table. "Bed now," she ordered. "And five points each from Hufflepuff." She'd have deducted ten each but Helga was the furthest behind in the competition for points already.

A guilty faced house elf peered around the table.

"Go get some sleep," Rowena said as she helped herself to an apple.

Turning round she left the kitchen again, only to find yet another student wandering the corridors. Was no one in bed tonight?

She coughed to let him know she was there.

"Sorry Miss, I must 'ave been sleepwalking," he said innocently. Rowena couldn't help but smile at the audacity.

"Bed!" she ordered, pointing back to the Hufflepuff quarters.

"What's going on?" Helga asked as she stepped out of her rooms at the far end of the corridor.

"I came down for a snack," said Rowena, displaying the apple as proof of her story.

"Sure you did," Helga replied. "Really Rowena, what if there's an emergency in Ravenclaw Tower?"

"If there's any sort of emergency I doubt it'll be in any of the student quarters. Do you have any idea how many of them are wandering around the school at night?"

"Just don't let Godric catch you," Helga said as she turned back to her own quarters.

"I won't tell if you won't," Rowena called back.

Rowena finally reached Salazar's quarters without any further students wandering across her path. She knocked and the door and waited.

And waited.

She knocked again, this time more loudly.

And waited.

Finally she ran out of patience and eased open the door.

"Sal?" she called. A loud snore revealed his presence. "Sal, wake up," she whispered. He didn't stir. She poked him in the shoulder but all he did was turn over with a snort. She shook him a little harder but he didn't rouse.

She was actually starting to get worried when she spotted the contents on the bedside table. She picked up the flask and sniffed at it. It took her a moment to recognise it as a potent sleeping draught.

"And strong enough to knock out a hippogriff," she muttered before taking a swig herself.


	14. Feathers and Eggs

**Chapter 14 – Feathers and Eggs**

The term progressed and gradually each of the founders got used to their new professions. The students were, for the most part at least, eager to learn although there were several troublemakers who were making it their mission to outdo each other with spells, jinxes and hexes in the evenings and between classes. If it wasn't someone conjuring a dozen rats in the Hufflepuff common room it was someone else hiding all the school brooms on the roof of the Astronomy tower. Someone was always up to something.

"Do you think one of the students has tampered with it?" Helga asked as she looked at the Ravenclaw hourglass in the Entrance Hall.

"Must have," Godric replied. "There's no other explanation for _this_." He waved his hand towards the hourglass that was repeatedly adding feathers to the Ravenclaw house points total. Every minute or two another couple of feathers drifted down.

"I think someone tried to add a few and the spell stuck so that more are added all the time," Helga suggested. "It's a Sunday so there can't be that many students earning points. There aren't any classes today."

Godric took out his wand and tapped at the hourglass, muttering an incantation under his breath to try to establish how it had been tampered with.

"Nothing?" asked Helga as Godric continued to frown at it.

"I don't know what they've done to it but it must be very advanced magic to cover it so completely that I can't see what they've done."

"But our oldest students are only fourteen," Helga pointed out. "How can they manage something like this?"

"Something like what?" Salazar asked as he emerged from the staircase leading down to the dungeons.

"Someone seems to have tampered with the Ravenclaw hourglass," Helga informed him. She pointed to the hourglass that was even now adding a couple more feathers to the total.

"I thought we'd put spells on them so they can't be messed with?" Salazar asked as he took a closer look.

"We did!" Godric confirmed. "But someone has managed to bypass them so that every couple of minutes the Ravenclaw glass is added to."

"And you think a fourteen year old could manage that?" Salazar sounded extremely sceptical and Helga nodded in agreement.

"What other explanation is there?" Godric asked.

"I don't suppose you've asked Rowena about it?" Salazar replied. "It is _her_ house that is racing into the lead here."

"Rowena wouldn't tamper with the hourglass!" Helga looked aghast at Salazar, shocked that he would even suggest such a thing.

"I'm not saying that she would," Salazar replied. "But could she be awarding points to someone in her house? Perhaps someone has put her under a spell to force her to award them?"

"Don't you think that something like that is perhaps just a little extreme? The only spell I can think of that would do something like that would be the Imperius Curse and I don't think…" Helga's voice trailed off. The thought of a student being able to perform one of the Unforgivable Curses was disturbing to say the least.

"I think we should find Rowena and see if she can shed some light on this," Godric agreed. "Do you know where she is?"

"Why are you looking at me?" Salazar asked. "I don't monitor her every move."

"Well it _is_ her birthday so I thought you might be spending the day together."

"I'm taking her out for dinner tonight as a surprise, but I've no idea where she is right now."

"Where are you taking her?" Helga asked curiously. "Rowena never mentioned anything."

"That would be because it's a _surprise_," Salazar replied with a roll of his eyes. He hoped she didn't notice that he'd failed to answer her question about where they were going. He and Rowena had managed to keep their secret chamber a complete secret from everyone else in the school and he intended to keep it that way.

"Let's go see if she's in her office," suggested Godric, inadvertently cutting off Helga as she repeated her question and thus saving Salazar from having to lie a second time.

"Good idea," Salazar agreed as he led the way to the base of Ravenclaw Tower where Rowena's office was situated opposite her rooms.

Unfortunately she wasn't in there, nor was she in her rooms.

"Salazar, why are your spare robes in here?" Godric asked as they looked around Rowena's rooms.

Salazar looked guiltily towards the robe hooks near the door. "Laundry?" he suggested innocently whilst Helga giggled behind her hand at the thought of Rowena doing anything even remotely domestic.

Godric rolled his eyes and went to open the wardrobe.

"I don't think she's hiding in there," said Salazar as he stepped in Godric's way and closed the door shut with a bang.

"How about we try the Transfiguration classroom?" Helga suggested. "Maybe she's setting something up for her class tomorrow morning?"

"Or we could just wait here for her to turn up?" Godric countered. "She has to come back here eventually. Or maybe we should go check Salazar's rooms and see if she appears there?"

"Maybe we should split up and search for her?" Salazar suggested instead, pointedly ignoring Godric's comments. "It's a big castle and she could be anywhere."

"She's not lost," Helga pointed out. "Do we really need a search party?"

"We need to find her before the problem with the hourglass gets much worse," said Salazar.

Five minutes of debating later and they had decided to go and search for her. Another five minutes of arguing and they had finally decided who was going to look where.

They had just finally come to an agreement when the door opened and Rowena herself walked in.

"Is something wrong?" she asked upon seeing the rest of the founders gathered in her room.

"Yes!" said Godric.

"Just a little thing," added Helga.

"Someone's tampered with the Ravenclaw hourglass," Salazar informed her.

"You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?" Godric asked suspiciously.

"Rowena wouldn't tamper with it!" Salazar snapped at Godric.

"I haven't," Rowena confirmed with a vehement shake of her head.

"Well someone has," Godric said. "It's been awarding points to Ravenclaw every couple of minutes since mid morning."

"Oh, is that all?" Rowena asked with a sigh of relief. "That was me."

"What?" The others looked at her in shock.

"But you just said you hadn't tampered with it," Salazar pointed out, a hint of disapproval and disappointment in his tone.

"I haven't tampered with it," Rowena replied. "But I _have_ been awarding points this morning."

"But what for?" Helga asked. "It's Sunday, there aren't any classes or anything."

"I was awarding points to those students who had learned through the password to Ravenclaw Tower," Rowena said with a shrug. "You know I altered the password at the start of October. Well I wanted to see how many remembered my birthday now it's here and so awarded a couple of points to everyone who remembered."

"Let me get this straight," Salazar said, holding up his hand for quiet from the rest of the room. "You've been giving house points to everyone who wished you a happy birthday today?"

"Well, yes," Rowena said. "And not just Ravenclaw students. I gave some to students from other houses who remembered too. Just to be fair."

"But most of the students in the other houses won't have had a clue it's your birthday," Helga pointed out sternly, though a smile was threatening to escape.

"And there aren't that many students in Ravenclaw to account for all the points that have been awarded this morning," Godric added.

"Er, Rowena," Salazar started. "You don't think that perhaps you could have been awarding some students points more than once, do you?"

"Erm…well I thought perhaps one or two faces looked familiar…"

"Clearly some of the Ravenclaw students have realised what Rowena was doing and decided to take advantage of her forgetfulness when it comes to names and faces," Salazar said. "It would just take a handful of troublemakers to keep trailing her around the school wishing her a happy birthday over and over and over and over…"

"Oops," Rowena said with a guilty smile.

"It sounds to me like some of our students have far too much spare time on their hands," Salazar said.

"I'll set them extra homework for the weekends," Rowena said.

"Or we could just track down the troublemakers and put them in detention," Salazar suggested. "It'll save on marking extra homework."

"I'll get them helping out in the herb garden," Helga added. "And I'm sure Augustus can use some help in the stables."

"I have another idea actually," Godric said. "One that should not only keep the students out of trouble but also help the school."

"Do tell," said Salazar as they all sat down to hear what Godric had to say.

"Well you know most of the troublemakers are in the third year," Godric said. Everyone nodded in response. There did seem to be an unusual amount of mischief makers in that particular age group. "Well I think that I'll give them an extra class project for Care of Magical Creatures."

"Isn't that the same as extra homework?" Rowena pointed out.

"No, this won't require any marking. I'll have them breeding, rearing and training owls for the school."

"Don't we have enough owls already?" Helga asked. "We purchased loads in the summer after we realised we were short."

"And next summer when we have a more students we'll be short again, and the following year and the one after."

"It might keep them out of mischief," Salazar agreed.

"I know a man who can get us some eggs…" Godric started.

"Uh oh," Helga muttered.

"What's wrong with that?" asked Godric, sounding thoroughly offended.

"What's right about that?" Helga retorted. "You'll either be charged a fortune for eggs that are already cooked or you'll pay for them dirt cheap and end up with dragon eggs or something."

"You think I can't tell the difference between dragon eggs and owl eggs?" Godric was sounding more offended by the minute.

"Do we need to remind you about that incident with the horse that some charlatan had convinced you was a unicorn?" Salazar asked with a smirk.

"That was one of the best permanent sticking charms I've ever come across," Godric replied. "Anyone would have been fooled by such a brilliant fake."

"Wasn't it a Shire Horse though?" Rowena asked with a wicked grin.

"That's not the point," Godric muttered. "I think I can manage to get owl eggs for the school without too much trouble."

"I'll come with you," Helga said. "Just in case."

"But you don't know anything about different types of eggs," Godric pointed out.

"But I know the going rate for owl eggs, which is more than can be said for you!" Helga folded her arms and glared at Godric, daring him to contradict her. Finally he nodded his head in agreement.

* * *

"Professor Gryffindor, Sir? I think there's something wrong with my egg?"

Godric groaned mid-lecture at the question and the resulting snickers from the other students.

Until the eggs hatched there was little that could be done by the class other than monitoring them. The real work would be rearing them and training them to deliver post. Consequently each and every lesson involved one student or another finding something 'wrong' with their egg.

Eggs mysteriously changed colour or developed strange markings. Some even started flying around the Owlery at high speed.

It was something of an achievement that none of the eggs had thus far been damaged.

"I'm sure there's nothing wrong with the egg," Godric assured the girl who had raised her concerns this time.

"I think it's hatching," the girl next to her said excitedly as they peered at the egg.

"Are you sure? It's a little early to be hatching," Godric said as he hurried across the room to see. "Ah, yes, it does appear to be moving. You didn't bring your wand to class did you?" he asked. After the incident with the flying eggs he'd decided to ban wands from this particular class for the time being.

The girls shook their heads and one of them leaned forward to give the egg a prod with her finger.

"Um, don't do that dear," advised Godric, resisting the temptation to slap their hands out of the way. "And whose toad is that?"

"Looks like Reginald's. He said he'd lost it last week. I guess he lost him up here when he came to post something."

"Well if someone could take him and give him back to his owner." Godric picked up the toad and passed it to the nearest set of hands waiting to carry out his request.

"What sort of owl is it going to be?" asked one of the boys from the back of the group that was now crowding around the egg, waiting to see what hatched.

"Five sickles says it's a Tawny," said another boy.

"Three sickles it's a Snowy," said another.

Godric turned to scowl at them but no one took any notice as money started changing hands. Soon the class was divided between those crowding around the bookmaker and the rest crowding around the egg.

"Look it's really hatching!" the girl who'd first spotted the movement declared as the egg started to crack.

Everyone leaned in again and held their breath as they waited for the first sight of the new baby owl.

Slowly and determined the egg was certainly hatching, and the students waited to see the results, their next class all but forgotten in the excitement of something actually happening after all their waiting.

Finally it was hatched.

"Erm, Professor, that's a bit of a funny looking owl." The girl cocked her head to one side in confusion.

"What sort is it?" the bookmaker asked from where he was waiting to find out how much was going to be paid out and to who.

"Is it well?" another voice from the back asked. The lack of aaahing and ooohing from the girls in the class had alerted the boys at the back to the possibility that all was not as it should be.

"It seems that Professor Hufflepuff might have accidentally been duped into buying an egg that wasn't an owls," Godric informed the class.

"I thought you said _you'd_ bought the eggs?" a voice from the back piped up.

"Yes…well…erm…"

"What are you going to do with it?" the girl whose egg it was asked. "I can't train some stupid snake to deliver post. I'll fail if you make me do that. You can't make me train a snake. I don't even like snakes."

"Oh don't be silly," Godric said. "You can train one of the others once they're all hatched. We'll just release this somewhere when it's a bit older and able to take care of itself."

"Can't you just kill it?" the girl asked again as she tried to edge her way back from the snake. She had little success in her endeavour because she was effectively penned in by the other students, most of which were pushing forward to see even as she tried to step back.

"Certainly not," Godric replied. "Just because you don't like snakes doesn't mean they don't have their own functions and place in this world."

"Here you all are," Salazar said from the doorway to the Owlery. "Is there anyone who'd care to explain the reason why I've had to come all the way up here to fetch the students who should have presented themselves in my Potions class some fifteen minutes ago?"

"Sorry. My fault," Godric said as he waved Salazar over. "Our first egg hatched and we lost track of the time in all the excitement."

"Of course," Salazar said with a sigh of impatience. "I just hope that when the rest of your owls hatch it won't result in the same thing every single time."

"Yes…well…run along now class," Godric waved the students out the door. Several moved rather reluctantly because they hadn't got a good look at the snake. The girl whose egg it was practically ran for the door, crushing Godric's right foot in her hurry.

"I want my money back…" a complaining voice drifted up from the staircase.

"It's not even an owl…"

"All bets are final! What hatched was different to what all of you bet…"

"But no one could have guessed it was going to be a snake…"

"All bets are final!"

"Did I just hear correctly?" Salazar asked Godric as the students filed past him.

"Just a little harmless wager," Godric said. "It'll probably serve as a lesson to them not to get involved in the evils of gambling."

"I meant about the snake," Salazar said. "You really bought a snake's egg instead of an owl's?"

"Must have slipped in there." Godric shrugged and gestured to the egg. Salazar stepped nearer for a closer look.

"Er…Godric…do you know what this is?" Salazar asked as he looked at the snake.

"I believe it's a snake," Godric replied. "I thought we'd already established that."

"Aren't we amusing today," Salazar said as he shifted bits of shell out of the way to get a better look. "I think you need to get rid of this animal real quick."

"I thought you liked snakes," Godric said. "You once said you had more intelligent conversations with snakes than you had with me."

"Well you were talking rather incessantly about that young witch from Oxford at the time. But this isn't just any old snake."

"It isn't?" Godric asked as he bent down to look closer.

"I could be wrong, but I think this might be a Basilisk."

"Really?" Godric asked in awe as he continued to gaze at the creature. "Isn't it amazing?"

"Fascinating," Salazar muttered. "Do you even know what a Basilisk is?"

"A type of snake."

Salazar rolled his eyes. "Maybe I'm wrong. I ruddy well hope so. Er…there weren't any toads up here were there?"

"Reginald's toad had escaped from him and was lurking around this egg," Godric confirmed. "But I thought you needed a chicken's egg."

"You do," Salazar replied. "Looks like someone was pulling a fast one when they sold you the eggs."

"Didn't they outlaw breeding Basilisks a few years ago?" Godric asked.

"With good reason," Salazar nodded. "They're deadly. The fangs are venomous and if you look in its eyes it will kill you instantly. Like most animals they're born blind but it won't stay that way. You need to get rid of this thing before it gets its vision. Someone in Hogsmeade probably has a rooster we can borrow. They're cries are deadly to them."

"Can't we keep it a while?" Godric asked. "You can speak Parseltongue, can't you keep it under control?"

"I'm not babysitting some deadly snake," Salazar replied. "We've got more than enough trouble with the students without adding killer snakes to the list of issues."

"I don't mean keep it forever," Godric said. "Just long enough to study it for a while. I mean, look at the opportunity we've got here."

"If anyone finds out we've got this here, they'll shut the school and we'll probably be arrested for breeding it."

"But imagine the chance to study it up close!"

"I'd really rather not. And you're missing the point here. We can't keep it!"

Godric looked thoroughly crestfallen at this. "Can't we find somewhere nice to let it go? Somewhere it can roam free?"

"They grow up to fifty feet long and kill people," Salazar snapped. "Where do you suggest we turn it loose?"

"You could ask it not to kill people," Godric suggested. "You could train it."

"Ignoring the fact that you can't train these things, where would I keep it exactly? In my quarters?" Salazar asked. "Besides, Rowena doesn't like snakes much and she'd never set foot in my rooms again if I had that thing in there."

"That's settled then," Godric smirked.

"I'm not keeping it in my rooms, it wouldn't be secure anyway."

"There's got to be somewhere in the school where we can keep it. What about that room that comes and goes and changes?"

"We still haven't figured out exactly how that room works," Salazar pointed out. "What if it got out?"

"You can't just kill it," said Godric in a tone that sounded rather pleading. "There's got to be some other option."

"We'll discuss this later," Salazar said. "My class will be over by the time I get down to the dungeons if I don't leave now. In the meantime move that snake somewhere out of the way of the other animals. And don't lose it!"

With that Salazar turned to leave the Owlery, shaking his head as he walked. He knew of one place that was secure enough to keep the Basilisk. It would even be large enough to keep it in if it grew to full length. It would never be able to get out and he should be able to control it when he was down there.

The only problem was that he was quite sure he didn't want Godric knowing about the private chamber he'd created for himself and Rowena.

* * *

By the end of the day Salazar had secured the baby Basilisk in the secret chamber and had told Godric that he'd let him study it until such time as it became too dangerous.

"So where _have_ you hidden it?" Godric asked.

"Somewhere safe, where it can't get out," Salazar replied. "You let me know when you want to see it and I'll fetch it for you to study. But I'm not leaving you alone with it again. It's too dangerous."

"But _where_ is it?" Godric asked again. "Have you figured out how to work the room that disappears?"

"No. That room is as much a mystery as ever."

"You've not hidden it in your own quarters?"

"Of course not."

"You've built some secret room into the school, haven't you?" Godric asked. "Where is it? Can I see it?"

"If everyone knows about it, it won't be a secret," Salazar pointed out.

"I bet you've told Rowena," said Godric. "I'll just ask her."

"She won't tell you."

"She will if I tell her you've hidden the Basilisk down there."

"She already knows."

"And she agreed to that?"

"She knows, as I do, that there isn't really any other option apart from killing it."

"You can't just kill it!"

"Which is why it's now confined somewhere only I can access."

"And you're not going to tell me where?"

"No."

"And you're sure Rowena won't tell me?"

"Absolutely."

"And the students are completely safe."

"As safe as they can be in a school of magic."

"And you're definitely not going to kill it."

"As long as I can control it, I'll let it live. If it ever gets out of hand so even I can't control it then I'm sorry but…"

Godric sat in silence for a few minutes before he spoke again. "So what are we going to call it?"

_Author Notes: I apologise for all the scene breaks/line breaks that have been misisng from this story. I had been manually adding them into my uploaded documents but didn't realise that they were not sticking when it was published. They were showing in the previews and it wasn't until it was pointed out to me today that I knew that they weren't showing up live. I have now changed the type of line break to one that (hopefully) will show up on the pages. I apologise again for this and hope you will understand that it wasn't entirely my fault. _


	15. Chaos Reigns

**Chapter 15 – Chaos Reigns**

"Professor Slytherin?" the small voice piped up from the back of the classroom. Salazar looked up from the essay he was marking and saw a waving hand through the smoke that rose from the surface of the potions the students were making.

"You have a question?" he asked, reluctant to leave his seat and enter the fumes unless it was absolutely necessary.

Isolde looked a little nervous but continued on in her quest for his attention. "Yes Professor."

"A question about the potion you're making?"

"Not exactly."

"Yes or no? Is the question about the potion?"

"Not really."

"Then I suggest you concentrate on your potion, which appears to be boiling over from what I can see, and save your question until after the class."

"But it's lunchtime after this lesson!"

"If you really want an answer to your question you'll sacrifice a few minutes of your lunchtime instead of wasting my lesson time. Now turn down the flames on your cauldron before you ruin it entirely."

Salazar had soon realised that most of the questions the students asked in class were in fact nothing more than time wasting devices that served to distract everyone from their tasks. By the time the end of the lessons rolled round most of the questions had been forgotten and nothing further was said. Therefore it came as something of a surprise to find Isolde hovering at the back of the dungeon as the rest of the class deposited their potions on his desk for marking.

"Richards, wait a moment!" he called out to one student who was trying to quickly duck out the door. Rufus Richards wandered, somewhat reluctantly back to the desk. "Why is your potion this rather alarming shade of orange?"

"I added some pumpkin juice to give it a nicer flavour," Rufus explained with a smile and a shrug.

"This is a cleaning potion," Salazar pointed out. "No one's going to be drinking it, so it doesn't matter what it tastes like."

"I thought we were making a wit-sharpening potion today?" Rufus asked in confusion. "I'm sure you said something about that one."

"I think you'll find that what I said was to keep your wits about you because you'll need to take your cauldrons off the flames at a rather precise moment."

"Are you sure? Because I'm sure you said…"

"Does it appear that anyone else misheard me?" Salazar asked as he gestured to the rest of the potions on his desk. For the most part the cleaning potions had been successfully made, although one appeared to be melting the vial it was contained in and another appeared to have the consistency of dough.

"But did I make it right?" Rufus asked, clearly not that bothered that he'd been preparing the wrong potion.

"Why don't you test it and find out?" Salazar asked. "I have the antidote here if you've done anything wrong. Or if you'd rather not then you can make up your marks by writing two feet on the preparation of cleaning potions before the end of the week."

"I'll do the essay," Rufus said.

"Thought you might," Salazar replied as he shooed him from the room.

"Professor Slytherin?" Isolde asked as she nervously placed her own potion on the desk. "You said you'd answer my question at the end of the lesson," she reminded him.

Salazar looked at the nervous girl who glanced quickly over to her friends who were hovering in the doorway waiting for her. "Well what is your question?" he asked, curious to know what could be more important to the girls than the daily race for lunch in the Great Hall.

"I…er…we…um…we were wondering if you could tell us who the school ghost is?" Isolde asked, glancing at her friends who were now edging their way back into the room.

"We don't have one," Salazar replied in surprise. "This castle is brand new. Built just this year. There aren't any ghosts here."

"But we heard it cackling!" Isolde insisted.

"Ghosts are wizards who have decided not to move on and have chosen to stay here. No one here has died. And even if they had I'm sure no self respecting ghost of a wizard would stoop to cackling."

"Are you sure?" Betsy asked as she approached the desk. "There's always a funny smell in the Divination classroom. It could be a dead body."

"I think you'll find that the smell is in fact a goat," Salazar said with a smile. "I think you can rest assured that the professors of this school would notice if someone had died."

"No one noticed when Rosalyn went down to Hogsmeade last weekend. She was there for two days."

"She was?" Salazar asked. "What was she doing there?"

"I think she was visiting her uncle," Betsy said after a moment of consideration. "Or it might have been her grandmother."

"Well I'm sure she had permission to go visit her relatives," Salazar assured the students.

"She did?" asked Isolde doubtfully.

"I promise you that nothing goes on in this school that the professors don't know about." The highly sceptical girls looked back at him before smirking at each other.

"But how do you explain the cackling?" Isolde asked. "We heard it but there was no one there when we went to look."

"Where was this?" Salazar asked, suspecting it was somewhere in the region of the hen house.

"In the Great Hall." Hmm, nowhere near the hen house then.

"It was probably just another student playing a prank on you."

"But it was in the middle of the night," Isolde said as her friends suddenly started backing towards the door and shooting glares in her direction.

"Then it was probably one of the professors patrolling the corridors. We do that to ensure that no students are out of bed. It's detention for anyone we catch."

"You patrol the corridors?" Isolde asked sceptically.

"Certainly we do," Salazar replied, crossing his fingers beneath the desk as he lied. If the students believed the professors had nothing better to do than wander the school all night maybe they'd stay in their bedchambers for more than ten minutes at a time.

"But there wasn't anyone around when we heard the noises," Betsy pointed out. "And why would a teacher be cackling?"

"Well it wasn't me, so I wouldn't know the answer to that one," Salazar admitted. "But I can assure you there are no ghosts at Hogwarts."

The girls weren't convinced and they left the room muttering to each other about the ghost.

* * *

Rowena had made it her practice to duck into the kitchen for a quick snack between classes and was doing just that when the sound of something crashing came from the Great Hall above.

Food forgotten, she ran up the stairs and into the Great Hall.

She stood in the doorway and looked at the mess the room was in. Godric arrived close behind her and swore under his breath as he too saw the state of the Hall.

"What happened?" he asked. "Did you see anyone leaving?"

"No one," Rowena replied.

"You wait here while I check the antechamber," Godric said as he hurried as fast as he could across the room. Admittedly this was not very fast because all the tables and benches were strewn across the room, creating something akin to an obstacle course.

Eventually Godric arrived at the door to the antechamber and Rowena watched him go inside. She expected him to emerge a few minutes later with the culprits but he reappeared alone.

"You don't think any of the students have an invisibility cloak, do you?" Rowena called across the room as Godric stumbled around the furniture on his way back to the door.

"I certainly hope not," Godric replied. "What sort of irresponsible parent would let their child loose with an invisibility cloak?"

"Er…I had one when I was fourteen," Rowena replied. "I lost it somewhere in the Highlands though. I put it on a pony to try to ride it so I'd be able to convince my cousin I was flying without a broom. But it ran off while wearing it and I never saw it again."

"Precisely why children shouldn't be allowed to run about in them," Godric muttered. "They're really valuable and very rare…"

"Yes, I had that lecture at the time, thank you," Rowena replied as she started to set the tables to rights.

"I don't think one student could have done this though," Godric said as he started to help her. "I was in here just a few minutes before I heard the noises and it would have taken several of them at least to cause all this mess in such a short amount of time. More students than can fit under an invisibility cloak at least."

"Unless more than one student has one," Rowena suggested.

"They're rare," Godric repeated. "I doubt even one of the students has one, let alone several."

"So who do you think did all this?" Rowena asked.

"I don't know," Godric admitted as the last of the benches slid back into place.

They turned to leave the hall, hurrying to their respective classes. Rowena thought she heard the sound of laughter behind her but when she turned round to see who it was, there was no one there.

* * *

"I think we all know why we're here," Helga said as she looked around the table at the other founders. "We seem to have a problem with some sort of…"

Her voice trailed off as she looked around the table. This was the problem; they had absolutely no idea what it was that had been causing so much trouble for the last few weeks.

The Great Hall had been turned upside down three more times since Rowena and Godric had straightened it. Nearly every classroom had been re-arranged and disrupted. The only one that had survived the chaos was the Divination classroom. Or at least they thought it had been missed, it was a little hard to tell, what with all the clutter and mess that was in there on a regular basis anyway.

There had also been more than a dozen reports from half-hysterical students, mainly first years, about the ghostly laughter and strange noises. At first the reports had been from students wandering the halls at night but as they'd gradually started to remain in their quarters the reports had become more widespread and the noises were now being heard at any time of the day.

"Could it be a ghost after all?" Godric asked. "I know that we built the place but could some wizard with a grudge against one of us have decided to haunt the place to try and get us shut down?" He looked around the table before finally holding his gaze on Salazar.

"Why are you looking at me?" Salazar asked. "It could be someone with a grudge against one of you."

"I think we should make a list of everyone we know who might want to get us shut down, and then check that they're all still alive," Helga suggested.

"That could take months!" Salazar pointed out.

"Only for you," Helga replied sweetly. "I have my list already." She waved the list in question, there seemed to be less than half a dozen names on it.

"I'm sure you've annoyed more people than that," Salazar pointed out. "You annoy me on a very regular basis," he added with a grin that took the edge off his words.

"I did wonder about adding your name," Helga replied. "But I didn't think this was quite your style."

"I still don't think it's a ghost," Rowena said. "Are we sure that none of the other staff we've hired aren't trying to sabotage us?"

"Why would they do that?" Helga asked. "If they shut us down, they won't get paid."

"Didn't they demand payment up front?" Godric asked.

"Doesn't mean they got it," Helga replied with a smug smile. "They'll get paid at the end of each term. They get board and meals anyway so they don't need much money and none of them are exactly destitute. If we're shut down then none of them will be paid at all."

"Er…Helga," Salazar said as he leaned back in his seat. "There seems to be something the matter with your hair."

Helga's hands flew to her head and she felt the tugging of her hair as it parted itself and started weaving into plaits. She squealed and jumped out of her seat. "Rowena was that you?" she accused.

"Godric's nearer to you than I am, why blame me?" Rowena replied with a sniff.

"Because I doubt that Godric has the first clue on how to plait hair," Helga pointed out.

"Was it you Salazar?" Rowena asked.

"Does _Sal_ know how to plait hair?" Godric asked with a grin at the extra ammunition Rowena was providing him with.

"It wasn't me," Salazar replied with a glare at Rowena. "There's someone in this room apart from us." He pointed his wand at the door and locked it shut.

"If it's a student in an invisibility cloak he or she won't get out now," Rowena said. She started to reach out vaguely to see if she could get hold of the miscreant. The others were soon doing the same but there didn't seem to be anyone in the room apart from themselves.

Ten minutes later Helga crawled out from under the table with a groan. "No one under here," she muttered.

"There's no one in here," Salazar said. "But someone was messing with your hair."

Suddenly the unmistakable sound of cackling drew their attention upwards.

"What in the world is that?" Helga asked as they looked at the strange little man, hovering near the chandelier.

"Is it a ghost?" Godric asked as he hopped up onto the table for a closer look.

"He's too solid for a ghost," Rowena pointed out as she too clambered onto the table. "I think he's a poltergeist."

"In which case, why are you standing on the table?" Salazar asked. The poltergeist grinned wickedly as the idea that had already formed in Salazar's mind took a hold in it's own. Salazar grabbed Rowena just as the table tipped over. Godric unfortunately was not so lucky and fell to the floor with a crash.

He crawled out from under the now broken table, grabbed one of the broken legs and threw it at the poltergeist.

"Yes, that'll help," Salazar muttered as the poltergeist caught the leg and started to brandish it like a sword.

"So how do we get rid of it?" Helga asked.

"_You don't!" _the poltergeist said before it blew a raspberry at Godric and disappeared from sight, with a final cackle of joy.


	16. Parents Day

**Chapter 16 – Parents Day**

"So what do you think?" Godric asked with a bright smile at the others. "It'll be our first parents evening."

"You want to invite all the parents here?" Salazar asked. "Why?"

"So that we can speak with them about how their children are doing and assure them that their little darlings are in safe hands."

"Do they need assuring?" Rowena asked.

"Are they in safe hands?" Salazar added.

"Since we opened we've had more than two dozen complaints from parents whose children have written home," Godric informed them.

"What have they got to complain about?" Helga asked. "I thought things were going quite well."

"Well there have been several complaints about the food, apparently quite a number of our students don't like pumpkin juice. Also two of the students who had a dunking in the lake on the way here wrote home about that. Unfortunately one of them also mentioned the giant squid being a resident in the lake which caused his mother to have a bit of a panic attack. There are also more than a dozen parents wanting to know if the school is safe since it's now known to be the residence of a poltergeist." Godric rifled through the correspondence in front of him, mentioning now and then something of interest, until he reached the last of them.

"The students wrote home with all of those complaints?" Salazar asked. "Pity they don't spend as much time working on their essays."

"Nevertheless, they _have_ written home complaining about anything and everything and their parents are wanting some answers."

"Why not just write back," Rowena asked. "Some of these were written back in September, they should have been answered ages ago."

"Apparently we didn't take into account the amount of correspondence opening a school would entail," Godric admitted. "We've fallen a little behind."

"I suppose it would be easier to deal with all the complaints at once," Helga said. "But do we have to invite _all_ the parents? Where will we put them all?"

"We'll manage," Godric assured her with an airy wave of his hand.

"What about the muggles?" Salazar asked. "How are you suggesting they get here with all our muggle-repelling spells on the place?"

"We'll remove them for the day," said Godric, clearly not worried about that particular problem. "We're well out of the way here, it's not likely any muggles will be wandering this way on that exact day. I've not seen one anywhere near us since we opened."

"I believe that would be because of the spells," Salazar pointed out.

"We'll manage," Godric repeated. "Since I've already invited them, we'll have to."

"You've already invited them?" Rowena asked.

"Yes," Godric nodded. "They'll be here on Saturday."

"But that's only two days away!" Rowena exclaimed.

"Which brings me nicely to my next point," Godric continued. "Rowena, you really must make an effort to learn the names of _all_ the students, not just those in Ravenclaw. You have two days to learn them so I suggest you start now."

"I know some of them," Rowena muttered. "The troublemakers at least."

"Well we all know the troublemakers," Helga pointed out. "The rest of us knew the names of the troublemakers within a week."

"Well your job between now and Saturday is to learn the rest of them," Godric ordered. "Salazar, you need to find a way of keeping that ruddy poltergeist from upsetting the parents."

"Me?" exclaimed Salazar indignantly. "Why can't you concentrate on the creature? Isn't that your department?"

"I don't really think poltergeists come under the category of magical creatures," Godric said, neatly palming the problem off onto Salazar. "Besides, I think he likes you."

"What makes you think that?" Salazar asked. "He's been plaguing me all week!"

"Exactly. We'll leave you to sort out Peeves."

"Peeves?" Helga asked.

"It's what the students have named him," Godric explained. "Helga, you keep an eye on our cooks and the house elves and make sure that we can feed the parents adequately."

"I'll also make sure that pumpkin juice isn't served to them," Helga added. "We've plenty of nettle wine that will do instead."

"There's nothing wrong with pumpkin juice," Godric muttered.

"Nothing right about it either," Salazar replied. "And what are you going to do while we're all slaving away to get things ready?"

"I'll be supervising," Godric answered with a smug smile.

* * *

The first of the parents arrived shortly after dawn.

"I thought Godric called it a parents _evening_?" Rowena whispered to Salazar who was trying to casually stifle a yawn.

"Well what do you expect from Godric," Salazar whispered back. "When has any plan of his run like clockwork?"

"Good point," Rowena replied, forcing a bright smile onto her face as she stepped forward to greet the Harbutts.

"Be nice!" Salazar whispered behind her. She turned round quickly and stuck out her tongue.

Godric was soon in his element, giving parents a tour of the castle and explaining the functions of each of the rooms. Salazar after the initial greetings disappeared in order to keep Peeves out of the way by engaging him in battle in one of the empty classrooms in the dungeon.

Helga and Rowena escaped to the kitchens as soon as they could, though Helga was quite adamant that Rowena stay well away from the ovens and the food. Of course this resulted in Rowena doing very little other than licking the spoons, scraping out the bowls and sampling the goodies that were being prepared. Helga would have stopped her from this but quickly found that when Rowena wasn't nibbling at the food she was complaining about several of their visitors.

"I thought we'd only invited the parents?" Rowena asked between bites of a pumpkin pasty. "What was Rosalyn's little brother doing here? He looks like he's going to be trouble."

"Probably," Helga replied as she turned down the oven. "I think he's come to see what the school is like since he'll be joining us next year."

"And what about that aunt of…?" Rowena's voice trailed off and she frowned in concentration.

"Of one students you can't remember the name of?" Helga asked wickedly. "Did you even try to learn the names of the rest of them?"

"Yes," Rowena said with a sniff. "But there's so many of them! Anyway, did you see her?"

"Who?"

"That second year's aunt," Rowena said. "Long blonde hair with little stars twinkling in it. Where does she think she is? A Yule Ball? And velvet robes! I mean who wears velvet robes these days, it's practically summer!"

"It's the end of November," Helga pointed out reasonably.

"That's not the point. She doesn't need to wear them indoors. And did you see how much kohl she was wearing?"

"Can't say that I did."

"She looked like a panda," Rowena said. "And did you see the way she was fawning all over Salazar?"

"Ah yes, now I know who you mean," Helga said as comprehension finally dawned. "She did seem quite pleased to see him."

"Pleased?" Rowena squealed. "She practically threw herself at him. I don't care how they greet people on the continent, she was practically checking out his tonsils with her tongue."

Helga gave an unladylike snort of laughter. "I must have missed that, are you sure you're not exaggerating?"

"Of course not. You didn't see her when he held the door to the Great Hall open for her either. Pretending to fall over so he'd catch her."

"Wasn't she wearing rather high heels?" Helga asked.

"Yes!" Rowena exclaimed. "Totally unsuitable for the area."

"I meant, she might have simply tripped because of them."

"Rubbish!" Rowena replied with a snort of her own. "She knows how to walk properly, though she might be in difficulties if she doesn't keep her claws out of Salazar."

"Did anyone ever tell you that you're unreasonably jealous?" Helga asked. "Has Salazar ever given you cause to doubt him?"

"No," Rowena muttered. "I trust him. I just don't trust that little tart upstairs."

"Well how about you take your mind off of that tart and concentrate on these tarts here?" Helga asked as she levitated a tray of strawberry tarts onto the table.

"Oooh," Rowena exclaimed as she reached for one.

"I didn't mean _eat_ them?" Helga sighed as Rowena stuffed the first one into her mouth whilst reaching for a second.

* * *

"I think it's going rather well," Godric said to Rowena after he'd encouraged their guests to start eating.

"Is it?" she muttered back, her appetite not quite as it usually was, partially because of her earlier snacking in the kitchens and partly because of the woman who had somehow managed to acquire the seat at the other side of Salazar.

"Your father sends his regards," Cordelia said in a voice that most people would describe as mysteriously husky, although Rowena privately thought she sounded like she'd just run a marathon.

"Does he?" replied Salazar in his politest tone.

"I'm surprised he isn't here himself," Cordelia continued, looking around the room and giving every impression that she thought he might suddenly appear. "He said there might be an opening for myself next year."

"An opening?" Rowena asked. "To teach you mean?"

"Yes," Cordelia replied, leaning unnecessarily across Salazar to speak. "I've been reading Ancient Runes since before I could talk. He thought your school might like to engage my services."

"Were you always so backwards?" Helga asked from the other side of Cordelia. "Most children can talk _before_ they start to read."

Cordelia glared at Helga with utter venom whilst Rowena stifled a smile. She caught a quick wink from Helga as Cordelia turned back to her.

"I teach Ancient Runes," Rowena informed her with an icy smile. "I assure you I'm quite proficient in the subject."

"Are you?" Cordelia sounded surprised. "Tabitha said that they were still concentrating on things she'd translated when she was practically a babe."

"Not all students have been lucky enough to receive an education in Ancient Runes before attending Hogwarts," Salazar pointed out tactfully. "I'm sure that Rowena has simply been ensuring that all the class are able to follow the lessons." He squeezed Rowena's hand in support and gave her an encouraging smile.

"That's another thing," Cordelia said as she pointed to their hands with her knife. "Do you really think that this sort of thing is appropriate in a school?"

Godric coughed politely from Rowena's other side. She glared at him before turning her furious expression on Cordelia.

"Your father said that you were an honourable gentleman," Cordelia continued. "But that you kept some questionable company." Salazar's grip on Rowena's hand tightened; she was starting to lose circulation in her fingers.

"My father doesn't know the _meaning_ of the word honour," Salazar hissed. Rowena kicked him under the table as his grip on her hand became intolerable. He let her hand go and silently mouthed an apology.

Cordelia looked a little taken aback at the venom but recovered herself quickly. "You _will _need to look for an Ancient Runes professor at some point though?"

"At some point," Rowena said through gritted teeth.

"Well I hope you'll consider my application when the time comes," Cordelia said with a bright smile that seemed rather forced.

"Oh we'll give it _all_ the consideration it deserves," Rowena replied with a false smile of her own.

* * *

"Well I think that all went rather well," said Godric later that evening, after the last of the visitors had departed.

"It rather depends on your definition of 'well'," Salazar replied as he poured them each a glass of wine.

"Well none of the parents insisted on taking their children home," Helga said.

"And Peeves only appeared once and didn't do much more than call out a few mild insults," Rowena added.

"He called Cordelia a 'audacious tart'," Salazar pointed out. "I would where he might have picked up that particular expression."

"Wouldn't know," Rowena replied innocently, although she couldn't stop her smile as she recalled Cordelia's face at that precise moment.

"No one's shutting us down and no one's taking their children out of the school," Godric said. "All in all I think it's been quite a success."

"Sure Godric," Salazar commented. "You keep telling yourself that."


	17. Christmas

**Chapter 17 – Christmas**

"Listen to that," Rowena said as she sat on the front steps of the castle.

"What are we listening for?" Salazar asked as he sat down beside her.

"Quiet," Rowena replied. "Peace and quiet. The last time it was this quiet was before we opened."

"We do still have a few students here," Godric pointed out as he joined them. "Young Cutts is still here because his younger brother's have all got some contagious illness that the local healer can't identify. There's also a few others whose parents are abroad."

"But still," Rowena said. "It's _so_ quiet."

"Well it would be if you didn't keep making a noise by saying so," Helga commented.

"We actually made it through the first term," Godric said. "With no deaths or serious injuries at all."

"Why do you sound so surprised?" Helga asked. "Were you expecting death and destruction every day?"

"Well perhaps not _every_ day," Godric replied. "But certainly I was expecting more trouble than we've had. Let's hope that things continue like this for many decades to come."

"It will," Rowena said. "We've made it this far!"

Together the four founders sat and watched the sunset before heading back inside for supper.

* * *

"But why can't I have my present now?" Rowena asked in a whiny voice. It made no difference and Salazar continued to withhold her Christmas present from her.

"It's a surprise," Salazar told her for the fourth time. "You'll have to wait until later. And stop following me around pestering me or you won't get it at all."

"You've had your present," Rowena pointed out sulkily. "You've been going on about how wonderful this present is for days, and now it's finally Christmas Day you're still holding it back."

"That's right," Salazar replied with a smirk. "Now go help Helga in the kitchens or something."

"Helga kicked me out earlier. She won't let me back until she's finished preparing dinner. She says I get in the way and cause her twice as much work."

"Then why not go and help Augustus in the stables? Or go and read in the library?"

"I don't want to. I just want to know what my present is."

"Why don't you just give her whatever it is?" Godric asked from the other side of the teachers' common room. "Really, she's whining more than any of the first years did that day I told them we were going swimming in the lake."

"See, even Godric agrees with me." Rowena turned on her most charming smile and batted her eyelids rapidly.

"For crying out loud, would you just tell her before she sends herself blind," Godric called.

"No," Salazar insisted before pulling out his wand.

* * *

By the time Rowena had recovered from the full body bind Salazar had disappeared from the room.

"I can't believe he did that!" she exclaimed to Godric who seemed to find the whole thing extremely amusing. "Do you know what he's up to?"

"Thankfully I can honestly answer 'no' to that question," Godric replied with a smile. "He's been acting secretive all week."

"Are you sure about that?" Rowena asked as she brandished her own wand in Godric's general direction.

"Very sure," Godric said as he turned back to his correspondence.

Rowena wasn't sure that she believed him but it seemed to her that the easiest thing to do would be to simply try and track down Salazar wherever he'd disappeared to.

* * *

Several hours later and Rowena had still not found where Salazar had gone. She was starting to think that he was in the secret chamber but since he'd put Godric's pet basilisk in there she'd not even tried to figure out which bricks opened the passageway. Now she only went into the chamber with Salazar and was too nervous and jumpy to enjoy the place as she once had.

Since she couldn't find Salazar and didn't want to try to get into the Chamber, Rowena was now perched on one of the tables in the kitchen whilst Helga struggled to work around her.

"Maybe he forgot to buy me something and he's gone somewhere to find me something really special," Rowena suggested as she popped a grape into her mouth.

"He can't have forgotten Christmas," Helga patiently pointed out. "It's not like it's your birthday or some other odd date. It's Christmas!"

"He remembered my birthday," Rowena commented. "Maybe he's been kidnapped or got lost or…"

"This is Salazar we're talking about," Helga interrupted. "Not Godric."

"Well he must be somewhere!"

"He'll turn up when he wants to."

"You're not still whining about me, are you?" Salazar asked as he put his head round the door.

"Of course she is," Helga replied. "Now take her away with you so I can work in peace. She's been pestering me here for the last three hours."

Salazar rolled his eyes as he waved Rowena out of the door.

"So can I have my present now?" Rowena asked as he led her down the corridor.

"In a few minutes."

"After all this build up, it'd better be good," Rowena warned.

"Oh, I think you'll like it," Salazar said as he led her down to the dungeons.

"My present isn't anywhere near Godric's snake is it?" Rowena asked.

"No, it's in here," Salazar said as he opened the door to his own chambers.

A few minutes later Rowena was tearing into the wrapping paper around the small box.

"It's jewellery isn't it?" she asked as she shook the box slightly.

"Sort of," Salazar replied. "Considering the fuss you've made all morning, how about you open it instead of shaking it to pieces?"

"Good idea," Rowena said as she pulled the lid off the box and looked inside. "What is it?" she asked.

Inside the box was the most unusual necklace she'd ever seen. On the end of a fine and delicate silver chain hung a miniature silver hourglass suspended loosely within a ring.

"Don't turn the hourglass yet," Salazar said as Rowena moved to poke at it with her index finger.

"Why not?" asked Rowena as she looked closer at her present.

"It's a time-turner," Salazar said with a grin. "Or at least that's what I'm calling it."

"I've never seen anything quite like it," Rowena said. "Where did you find it?"

"Well that has to do with the other half of your present," Salazar said with a smug grin. "You see I finally managed to figure out how to work that room on the seventh floor, the one that comes and goes."

"You mean you got this in there?" Rowena asked. "I don't remember seeing it when we were there before."

"That's because it wasn't there before. The room provides whatever it is a person needs…with a few exceptions. It don't seem to be able to manage food or drink for example."

"You mean you got my present from the room?" Rowena asked with a raise of one eyebrow. "Cheapskate."

"Well if you don't want it, I can just take it back," Salazar teased. "But you might want to wait until I explain what it does."

"Does?"

"Actually I think it would be best to have you find out for yourself. Here, let me put it on you." Salazar moved behind her and took the necklace from her hands to tie it behind her neck. "Now turn the hourglass two…no make it three times."

Rowena did as he asked and waited.

"What now?" she asked. She turned around only to see that Salazar had gone.

"Salazar?" she called out. "Where are you? Sal? Come on, this isn't funny!"

Unfortunately Salazar didn't come at her call and no amount of searching his rooms could reveal his presence.

Eventually she decided to check out the mysterious room on the seventh floor. If it would open up for her, that is. However it was the only clue she had so she headed upstairs, keeping her eyes open for Salazar as she navigated the halls.

She arrived at the corridor where the vanishing room was located and was immediately surprised to see a door, slightly ajar, already there.

"Salazar?" she called out as she pushed open the door.

"Through here," Salazar called back.

Rowena closed the door behind her and walked down the hallway that was so different from the room that she'd seen the last time they'd gained access to the room. The hall was decorated for the holidays and opened out into a large living room with a roaring fireplace. This room was also decorated and Salazar was waiting for her in the centre.

"So how do you like your present?" he asked with a wide smile.

"How did you disappear from your room?" Rowena asked. "I thought we couldn't apparate in the castle?"

"I didn't apparate," Salazar replied. "In fact, I'm probably still there."

"Huh?"

"You haven't figured it out?" Salazar asked. He sounded a little disappointed in her but quickly recovered. "Never mind, it took me a while to figure it out too."

"Figure what out?"

"That little necklace you're now wearing can turn back time."

"What? Really? How do you know?"

"Because I did some extensive testing with it before deciding to give it to you," Salazar replied as he slapped her hands away from the hourglass in case she turned it again. "It goes back one hour for each turn. So now you're not only here with me, but you're also somewhere else in the school right now…bothering Helga, I believe."

"What if I'd run into myself?" Rowena asked. "That would've been really strange."

"You were in the kitchen with Helga so there was no chance of that providing you came straight up here like I'd planned. I just have to make sure that in three hours time I go and rescue Helga by removing you from the kitchen and giving you your present."

"Are you sure about this?" Rowena asked as she studied the hourglass.

"Absolutely," Salazar replied. "Plus, it'll get Godric off our backs. With this little beauty you can be a good little girl keeping watch over the Ravenclaw students upstairs in your own rooms, _and_ keeping me company downstairs in my rooms at the same time."

"And this just appeared in the room here?" Rowena asked. "And why is the room so different today?"

"Well that's because this room is whatever you want it to be. I was here a few weeks ago, pacing outside it trying to figure out how to open it up again and then suddenly the door appeared. But the room was different. Once I figured out how to open the room up I started to experiment to see what else it could change into. Then one day I was in here and was wondering about how to solve our other little problem and suddenly there was the time-turner on a table."

"Are you sure you don't want to keep it?" Rowena asked.

"I can always try to get the room to provide another one." Salazar grinned. "And what do you think of the rest of your present." He gestured around the room.

"It's a lovely room," Rowena said as she settled down in front of the fire. "It's like a little cottage. It's hard to believe we're still in the middle of the school."

"A cottage is exactly what it is," Salazar said as he sat down beside her. "You've seen the hallway, this is the living room. There's a kitchen through there, though you have to provide the food yourself, the bedroom and the privy are both back there." He pointed out the various rooms as he spoke then turned his wand towards the fireplace causing the flames to shoot even higher.

"It's perfect," Rowena said as she curled up beside him like a contented kitten.

"Not quite," Salazar replied sadly.

"If you're going to make some joke about my cooking…" Rowena warned as she jabbed him in the ribs.

"I mean it's not real," Salazar said as he grabbed her hand to stop any further assaults on his person.

"Seems pretty real to me," Rowena replied. "I can feel the heat from the flames."

"But it's just a magical room in a castle and not an actual cottage where we could live out our lives together."

"I never pictured you as the cottage type."

"Why not?" Salazar asked. "I'd be world famous by inventing new potions and improving the ones we have, you'd be raising our dozen children."

Rowena snorted.

"What?" he asked.

"You want a dozen babies then you better start working on a potion that enables men to carry them and give birth."

"All right, maybe half a dozen then."

"Some compromise," Rowena muttered. "What's wrong with me being a famous inventor?"

"Nothing at all," Salazar admitted with a laugh. "You can be whatever you want to be. And woe betide anyone who stands in your way."

"Too right!"

"I'm sorry," Salazar said as he hugged her close.

"What for?"

"For not marrying you five years ago when I should have done."

"You'd have been cut off. I understand the choice you had to make. I never blamed you for it."

"I know you don't; that doesn't stop me blaming myself though."

"I'd not ask you to choose between me and your mother."

"Which is one of the many reasons I love you so much."

"Maybe your father will change his mind one day?" Rowena suggested, though she didn't sound very hopeful.

"Whether he changes his mind or not, one day we'll be married and we'll have our cottage, I promise."

"Don't make promises you can't keep," Rowena warned.

"I never do," Salazar assured her. "No matter what, one day this _will_ be real."

"Whatever it takes," Rowena agreed.

"But for now, this'll have to do."

"And it does very nicely," Rowena replied. "It's a wonderful present, thank you."

Salazar smiled down at her mischievously. "Well we have a few hours to kill before I have to leave and give you your present. What do you suggest we do to pass the time?"

"Oh I have a few ideas," Rowena replied with a wicked grin of her own.

_Author Note: This is the final part of this story so I hope you enjoyed it. I thought that the end of the first term of Hogwarts was as suitable a place as any to wind things up. _

_I have now posted the first part of the sequel to this story since a few people indicated they wanted to see one. It is actually entirely written now (yes I have no life at all) so there is no danger of the sequel being an unfinished story or anything like that. The sequel does have some humour in it but is rather more romance/drama than romance/humour. It is called **Whatever it Takes** and I hope if you enjoyed this story you will consider checking out the sequel as well. _


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